Aunt Jane's Nieces
"That may be," answered the boy. "But Patsy will be there, you know."
CHAPTER XXIV.
HOME AGAIN.
The Major was at the station to meet them. Uncle John had shyly
suggested a telegram, and Patsy had decided they could stand the
expense for the pleasure of seeing the old Dad an hour sooner.
The girl caught sight of him outside the gates, his face red and
beaming as a poppy in bloom and his snowy moustache bristling with
eagerness. At once she dropped her bundles and flew to the Major's
arms, leaving the little man in her wake to rescue her belongings and
follow after.
He could hardly see Patsy at all, the Major wrapped her in such an
ample embrace; but bye and bye she escaped to get her breath, and then
her eyes fell upon the meek form holding her bundles.
"Oh, Dad," she cried, "here's Uncle John, who has come to live with
us; and if you don't love him as much as I do I'll make your life
miserable!"
"On which account," said the Major, grasping the little man's hand
most cordially, "I'll love Uncle John like my own brother. And
surely," he added, his voice falling tenderly, "my dear Violet's
brother must be my own. Welcome, sir, now and always, to our little
home. It's modest, sir; but wherever Patsy is the sun is sure to
shine."
"I can believe that," said Uncle John, with a nod and smile.
They boarded a car for the long ride up town, and as soon as they were
seated Patsy demanded the story of the Major's adventures with his
colonel, and the old fellow rattled away with the eagerness of a
boy, telling every detail in the most whimsical manner, and finding
something humorous in every incident.
"Oh, but it was grand, Patsy!" he exclaimed, "and the Colonel wept on
my neck when we parted and stained the collar of me best coat, and he
give me a bottle of whiskey that would make a teetotaler roll his eyes
in ecstacy. 'Twas the time of my life."
"And you're a dozen years younger, Major!" she cried, laughing, "and
fit to dig into work like a pig in clover."
His face grew grave.
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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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