"Any boys here yet?" he asked, looking up at Gibson in the upper hall.
"Yes," said Gibson; "three boys have come."
Joel didn't wait to ask who they were; he left David to bring Jack along and raced in to speak to Mrs. Sterling and the members of the Comfort committee.
"I am very glad to see you, Joel." Mrs. Sterling beamed at him from her sofa, feeling quite sure of the success of the first company she had given to the boys, now that Joel Pepper had come.
Joel gave her a bright little nod; then, remembering himself, he went over to her sofa and stuck out his little brown hand.
"I'm glad I've come," he said, bobbing at the same time in great satisfaction to the boys.
"Where is your friend, Joel?" asked Mrs. Sterling, in disappointment. "I surely thought you would bring him."
Joel glanced around in dismay, then pranced out into the hall. A scuffling noise struck upon his ear, and leaning over the banister, he saw David and Jack apparently hanging on to each other and whirling around in the hall below. He was down over the stairs in a flash.
"He says he must go home," said David, still holding fast to the edge of
Jack's jacket, and looking up with a very pink face.
Jack looked thoroughly ashamed, but he still cast wild eyes at the big front door, as Joel considering whatever was to be done at all, should be done quickly, launched him upstairs, and before he had a moment to breathe freely, pushed him into the beautiful sitting-room above with a, "Here he is."