“Whoever happens to be at liberty. Probably Jim will come, but it might be Will or Milton, or both.”
“Aren’t you lucky to have so many brothers to look after you!”
“I believe I am. It’s Jim—there he is!”
Virginia glanced out of the window as the train was pulling into the station and the girls were gathering up their bags and magazines. “He looks a little like Isabel,” she thought, “but tall, rather——” The image of Jim in his blue every-day suit was blurred, and the girls hurried down the aisle to the door.
“This is Virginia, Jim—my nice brother, Virgie. Where’s the machine?”
Jim took the baggage from the girls, led them to where a Ford machine stood waiting, and tucked them and the bags within. “Wait till I see about the checks,” said he, and disappeared in the freight room of the small station. But he soon reappeared and they started on their way to Isabel’s. The streets were a mixture of mud and snow. It had been sleeting a little and Jim drove carefully through the main streets, past neat frame houses, with here and there one of brick, stone or stucco, till they reached a big, rambling old-time colonial house, set in a large yard.
“We’ve never taken our fence down, like so many of the folks,” said Isabel, apologetically, as she pointed out the place and the low iron fence. “But we have all kinds of vines over it in the summer, clematis and ramblers and things, I was so disappointed not to have you here when the town looks pretty. Hilary would be delighted with our little orchard in bird time.”
Out of the house came two hatless youths as the machine drew up to the curb. “Mercy—nothing on their heads this cold day!” exclaimed Virginia; but Isabel and Jim only smiled.
“The twins, Virgie,” said Isabel, as she climbed out. Jim handed the bags to the smiling boys, Virgie was introduced to “Slim” and “Shorty,” and they were in the warm house in a jiffy. “I bungled most of my introductions, Virginia,” said Isabel. “Now see if I can properly present the boys to you.”
All the boys had kept awake till Isabel and her friend should arrive, but Norman and Edwin, having satisfied their affection for Isabel and their curiosity about Virginia, soon disappeared. Virgie placed them at once and was sure she would remember which was which, and noted how like Isabel her next older brother, Lou, was. Jim she had met first, and had his appearance stored away in her mind. But she was puzzled about the twins. They looked alike, as twins do, though there was enough difference, Virgie thought, to make distinction not too hard, but she was mixed on the introduction and thought that she would have to ask Isabel again. Will caught a puzzled look from her, and accustomed to the situation, called, “Come here, Shorty, I want to make sure that Miss Virgie knows us.”