“I’m not so sure of that,” replied Lee. “I was speaking to the doctor this morning and he said he thought I’d be able to make the trip home in two or three days from now. He thinks the warm southern weather is just what I need to bring me around all right again. So I telegraphed to my mother this morning about it and asked her to answer right away.”
He had barely finished speaking when there was a knock at the door, and a messenger entered with a telegram.
“Here it is now!” exclaimed Lee, his face lighting up with expectancy. “If you fellows will excuse me I’ll see what she says.”
He ran his eyes eagerly over the telegram, which was an unusually long one, and before it was finished gave a whoop of delight.
“Sounds as though you had good news,” remarked Bobby, as he saw the flushed face and sparkling eyes of his friend.
“I should say so!” cried Lee, waving the yellow slip above his head. “Listen to this part of it, fellows: ‘I cannot tell you how grateful I am to the brave boys who saved your life, and I want you to be sure to bring them along with you for a visit, if they would care to come.’ How about it fellows? Will you come along with me?”
“If we would care to come!” repeated Bobby. “You bet we’ll come!”
“Will a duck swim?” asked Fred, wild with delight at the vista opened up by the invitation. “That is,” he added a little more soberly, “if the folks at home will let us go.”
“Of course,” agreed Bobby. “But I haven’t much doubt about that. They let us go West on a ranch, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t be just as willing to have us go down South on a plantation. Come along, Fred, and we’ll write to them now, so that the letters will get to them to-morrow.”
“Why not telegraph?” asked Fred, who was bubbling over with excitement and impatience.