‘All well. Have you not been at home yet!’
‘No; I saw you here, and I could not help coming to meet you, that I might know if all was right.’
‘You would have found no one at home, unless my mother and Violet are come in. They are always creeping about together.’
‘Where is my father?’
‘Looking after the workmen at the farm. We left him there because it was Johnnie’s supper-time. Why, John, what a hale, middle-aged looking subject you are grown! Was it not wonderful sagacity in me to know you?’
‘Greater than mine,’ said John. ‘My instinct was failing as I came near. Are you really well?’
‘Never better. Johnnie and his mamma nursed me well again, and Helvellyn breezes blew away the remainder. When did you land?’
‘This morning. We put in at Liverpool, and I came on at once. How is my mother? She had not been well.’
‘She was ailing all the winter, but a house full of grandchildren seems to have cured her completely. You will stare to see her a perfect slave to—our eldest girl,’ said Arthur, checking himself as he was about to speak the name, and John turned to the child.
‘Well, Johnnie, and are you fond of riding?’