"Must we go, Father?" Ruth entreated.
"I am afraid we must, Daughter," Mr. Stuart answered, with a half anxious and half cheerful twinkle in his eye.
"Then it's Chicago for me!" sighed Ruth.
"And Kingsbridge for the rest of us!" echoed the other three girls.
"Ruth cannot very well travel home alone," Mr. Stuart remonstrated, looking first at Barbara, then at Mollie and Grace, and winking solemnly at Miss Sallie.
"Don't tease the child, Robert," Miss Sallie remonstrated.
"Aren't you and Aunt Sallie going home with me, Father?" Ruth queried, too much surprised for further questioning.
"No, Ruth," Mr. Stuart declared. "You seem to have concluded to return to
Chicago. But your Aunt Sallie and I are on our way to Kingsbridge, New
Jersey, to pay a visit to Mrs. Mollie Thurston at Laurel Cottage. Mrs.
Thurston wrote inviting us to visit her before we returned to the West.
But, of course, if you do not wish to go with us, Daughter—."
Mr. Stuart had no chance to speak again. For the four girls surrounded him, plying him with questions, with exclamations. They were all laughing and talking at once.
"It's too good to be true, Father!" cried Ruth.