Kenny laughed. Joan never knew that he had not meant to come again.
He found home in the farm kitchen and joyously pumping homely hands, stepped at once on the tail of Hannah's cat. Toby, after a vocal minute of terror, fixed a hard eye upon his heel and withdrew at once to a sheltered spot behind the stove. He had learned before that Mr. O'Neill with his head in the clouds was frequently unaware of feet things.
Kenny went of his own accord to Adam's sitting room.
Almost he surprised a glint of welcome in the old man's piercing eye.
"Well, Adam," he said happily, "I'm back!"
"Humph!" said Adam ungraciously. "I knew you would be."
By the end of the week Kenny forgot that he had been away.