"Then we'll start at once, unless some one would rather wait 'til to-morrow?" he said, his eyes twinkling.
"Oh, no! No!" they cried. "We just couldn't wait!"
"In that case we'll go now!" he said, with a droll expression, as if he started at once, merely as an accommodation.
"Why, Uncle Harry! You're only joking," cried Flossie. "You wouldn't be willing to wait until to-morrow. I heard you tell Aunt Vera to hurry and find your tie, because you were in such a rush to start!"
"To think that my own little niece would tell tales like that, and thus let out the secret. What chance have I now, of making them think that I was really very shy about riding with such a large party of girls?"
Shouts of laughter greeted this speech, and Uncle Harry waited until it had subsided, then he said:
"Oh, well, if no one believes that I am shy or diffident, it's waste of time to try to appear so, so I shall not try. Instead, I shall be very bold. Come, dears, let me help you in!"
And amid shouts of laughter from the children, he lifted each high in air, and placed her in the barge, thus saving her the trouble of mounting the steps.
Then taking his seat in the middle of the laughing, chattering little party, he called to the driver to start.
The long whip cracked, Jack Tiverton, from the piazza, blew loudly on a tin trumpet, and they were off over the road, the happiest party that ever filled a barge.