"I feel very rich with two such grandchildren," observed the captain, glancing with a happy smile from one to the other.
"As we do, though they are not our grandchildren," laughed Chester. "Don't we, Lu and Eva?"
Both ladies replied in the affirmative, each looking down with intense, joyful affection upon her little one.
"I should think you might, because they are both so pretty, sweet and good," remarked their young aunt Elsie.
"Of course they are, and I'm glad to be their uncle," said Ned.
"As I am to be yours," said Dr. Harold, drawing him to a seat upon his knee. "Are you glad to be at home again?"
"Yes, sir; and glad that you are to live here in our house now, instead of taking Gracie away from us to some other place."
"I should be sorry, indeed, to take her away from you and the rest of the family here, and I don't think I shall ever carry her off very far from you and the others who love her so dearly," replied Harold; "but you wouldn't mind my going, if I left her behind with you, would you?"
"Why of course I should, uncle doctor. I might get sick again and perhaps die if I hadn't you to cure me."
"Oh, that needn't follow while you have your other uncles—my brother Herbert and Dr. Arthur Conly. Either of them would be as likely to succeed in curing you as I."