“Joe!” “Mabel!” “Clara!” “Momsey!” “Dad!” “Jim!” The names were repeated in quick succession and were punctuated with hugs and kisses.
In a moment Joe had his right arm around Mabel, his left about his mother, while Clara had thrown her arms about his neck and his father was attempting to get hold of one of his hands. [There was no doubt of the warmth of that welcome.]
[THERE WAS NO DOUBT OF THE WARMTH OF THAT WELCOME.]
Nor was Jim left out in the cold. Joe naturally had the center of the stage, but after the first rapturous greeting had passed, they all made Jim feel how delighted they were that he had come along with Joe. In Clara’s eyes especially there was a look that Jim hoped he read aright. Her flushed and sparkling face was alive with happiness that might not be due altogether to the return of her brother, dearly as she loved him.
For a few minutes questions and answers followed close on each other’s heels, and it was Mrs. Matson at last who suggested that probably the boys were hungry. They agreed with her emphatically that they were. The girls flew about, and in a short time fresh coffee and hot biscuits and bacon and eggs were set before them in tempting profusion. Then while they ate like famished wolves, the others, who had been just finishing breakfast when they burst in upon them, sat about the table and talked and laughed and beamed to their hearts’ content. Perhaps in all the broad land there was no happier group than was gathered about that table in the little town of Riverside.
“You ought to have telegraphed that you were coming, Joe,” said Mrs. Matson. “Then we could have had a good breakfast ready for you.”
“What do you call this?” laughed Joe, as he helped himself to another biscuit, watching at the same time the bewitching way in which Mabel was pouring him another cup of coffee. “There couldn’t be anything better than this this side of kingdom come.”
“You’re right there, old man,” observed Jim, his own appetite keeping pace with that of his chum.