VINNIE'S FUTURE HOME.
A lively sensation was produced, the next forenoon, when a youth and a girl, in a one-horse wagon, with a big dog and a small trunk, arrived at Lord Betterson's "castle."
Link dashed into the house, screaming, "They've come! they've come!"
"Who has come?" gasped poor Mrs. Betterson, with a start of alarm, glancing her eye about the disordered room.
"Jack What's-his-name! the fellow that shot the deer and lost his horse. It's Aunt Lavinny with him, I bet!"
And out the boy rushed again, to greet the new-comers.
Lill, who was once more washing dishes at the table, stepped down from her stool, and ran out too, drying her fingers on her apron by the way. Five-year-old Chokie got up from his holes in the earth by the doorstep, and stood with dangling hands and sprawling fingers, grinning, dirty-faced.
Vinnie, springing to the ground with Jack's help, at the side door caught Lill in her arms, and gave her an ardent kiss.
"I have heard of you!" she said; for she had recognized the bright, wistful face.
"Dear auntie!" said the child, with tears and smiles of joy, "I'm so glad you've come!"
"Here is Link—my friend Link," said Jack. "Don't overlook him."
"I've heard a good deal about you too, Link!" said Vinnie, embracing him also, but not quite so impulsively.
"Ye needn't mind kissing me!" said Link, bashfully turning his face. "And as for him,"—as she passed on to the five-year-old,—"that's Chokie; he's a reg'lar prairie gopher for digging holes; you won't find a spot on him big as a sixpence clean enough to kiss, I bet ye two million dollars!"
