"In a month or two, yes. And what will you do?"
"Go back to Putnam Hall most likely—if the scarlet fever scare is over."
"Then we'll be likely to see you again before long," and Dora smiled her pleasure.
"It will be like old times to get back to the Hall again," Sam had put in. "But first, I want to go home and see the folks."
"Right you are," had come from Tom. "I reckon they are dead anxious to see us, too."
And so they had parted, with tight hand-squeezing and bright smiles that meant a good deal. One train had taken the girls southward to Santa Barbara, and another had taken the boys eastward to Denver and to Chicago. At the latter city the lads had made a quick change, and twenty-six hours later found them at Oak Run, and in the carriage for the farm.
CHAPTER II
NEWS OF INTEREST
"My boys! my boys!"
Such was the cry given by Anderson Rover, when he caught sight of the occupants of the carriage, as the turnout swept up to the piazza of the comfortable farm home.