"Uncle Silas!" he exclaimed. "We're all going to see him in a few days."
The children were mute with surprise. Sue's little doll dropped from her hands to the floor. Her face changed color and she turned quickly, with a loud cry, and drummed on the table so that the dishes rattled. Socky leaned over the back of a chair and shook his head, and gave his feet a fling and then recovered his dignity.
"Now don't get excited," remarked their father.
They ran out of the room, and stood laughing and whispering together for a moment. Then they rushed back.
"When are we going?" the boy inquired.
"In a day or two," said Gordon, who still sat drinking his tea.
Sue ran to tell Aunt Marie, the housekeeper, and Socky sat in his little rocking-chair for a moment of sober thought.
"Look here, old chap," said Gordon, who was wont to apply the terms of mature good-fellowship to his little son. Socky came and stood by the side of his father.
"You an' I have been friends for some time, haven't we?" was the strange and half-maudlin query which Gordon put to his son.
The boy smiled and came nearer.