HOME, SWEET HOME.
OW real jolly it seems to be back in our own parlor again!" said Willie Morton, making a flying leap over an ottoman as he spoke.
With his elder brother he had been away at school for a year, while his mother and sisters were travelling abroad. This was the first evening that they were all together again.
"Come, sister Annie," Willie continued, "sing 'Home, sweet home!' Charlie can play it on the flute."
So Annie took her place at the piano; their mother seated herself to listen, with little Amy on her lap; and Charlie produced his flute. They were soon singing the old familiar song with all their hearts, Willie's voice loudest of all.
When this song was ended, he proposed singing "The star-spangled banner," "because," as he said to his sister, "you ought to rejoice to be under the old flag again."
The singing over, the excited boy roused up his little sister, who had almost fallen asleep in her mother's lap, and whirled her round in what he called a waltz, till his mother said it was quite time to dance off to bed.
The last sound heard as he ran up stairs was, "Hurrah! there's no place like home!"
IDA FAY.
