In the midst of it all father and son walked in, radiant and smiling.
If Zeb had been really dead and made himself visible to his astonished family, they could not have been more alarmed.
"Mistress Garvan, stop your blubbering. We shall have visitors this night; sha'n't we, Zeb?"
"Yes, dad."
"Friends of mine. Oh, it will be a great time. Mistress, I'll buy the childer new clothes, ay, that I will, and I'll have a new ox for the farm. It is good, I tell you, to have friends."
Mistress Garvan wondered what had come over her stern husband.
She knew he had not been drinking, for he would not allow even as much as a drop of dry cider to come into the house.
"What have you been doing, Zeke?" she asked him.
"Nothing; it's only a little surprise we have. Isn't it so, Zeb?"
But Zeb had disappeared, and so no answer was forthcoming from him.