Uncle Jo's Old Coat

by Eleanora H. Stooke

It was on an evening towards the end of September, that the train by which Freddy Collins and his aunt and uncle had travelled from Devonshire slowed into the railway station of the town of B—, where the Dennis family resided. Freddy, a well-grown boy with a healthy complexion and blue eyes, was feeling very tired and slightly depressed. The previous day had been a long and exciting one, beginning with the marriage of Miss Seymour and Mr. Collins, and the departure of the bridal pair in the morning, and concluding with a tea in the village schoolroom, and an entertainment for the villagers in the evening.

Though Freddy really liked his step-mother, who, as Mrs. Dennis had been delighted to find, was in every way likely to make her brother a good wife, and was very bright and attractive, he did not approve of the plans she and his father had made for a long trip on the Continent, for he did not at all relish the idea of being banished for nearly three months from his home, as would be the case if Mr. and Mrs. Collins did not return till Christmas, though he had often wished to visit his relatives at B—. As the train had sped farther and farther from the wooded county of his birth, which he had never left before, he had grown quieter and quieter, and at last had fallen asleep, never awakening till his uncle touched him on the shoulder, saying: "Wake up, my boy. Here we are at last."

The next minute Freddy was standing on the station platform, being welcomed by his cousins, who had all come to meet him and their parents. They talked so much and so fast that he felt quite bewildered; but finally Edwin and Claude took him between them and marched him off, saying that they would walk home as it was not far to go, and the others would follow as soon as Dr. Dennis had seen to the luggage.

"I expect you're hungry after your long journey," said Edwin kindly, "but there's a jolly tea waiting for you. The wedding went off all right, I suppose? I say, what a good thing it is you like your step-mother!"

"Oh, she's all right," Freddy answered promptly. "I think you'll be sure to like her too. She and father are gone abroad, you know, and they wouldn't let me stay at Marldon Court with the servants."

"You'll be better with us," Claude told his cousin; "you'll like it at school after a while, and we shan't let you be dull. You've grown a good bit since I saw you last, Freddy; you're taller than I am now."

"Yes," Freddy assented, smiling complacently, "I believe I am; and I'm not so old as you by nearly two months. What a dirty place B— seems to be," he proceeded, glancing about him in the gathering dusk, "and how narrow this street is!"

"Yes, this is an old part of the town; in the newer parts the streets are wider," Edwin explained. "This is High Street; most of the business is done here; and here we are at home."

"At home!" Freddy cried, in blank astonishment. "Why, you don't mean to say this is Uncle Jo's house?" he questioned.

"Certainly it is," Edwin answered; "I thought you knew we lived in the main street."