"Mayhap that is because you are only a girl, Maud," remarked Chester teasingly.
"Yes," she returned sportively, "if I were only a boy I might be as silly as the others."
"Does it strike you as very silly, Gracie?" asked Walter.
"Well, no; not for boys," she returned doubtfully, "but rather so for a man. There are so many other things in which—at least it seems to me—it would be better worth while to excel."
"Yes; so there are," he agreed with a thoughtful look. "And yet an occasional bit of sport is a good thing even for a man."
"That is very true," said Harold; "and certainly as true for brain-workers as for any who toil with their hands."
"Doesn't it seem pleasant to be at home again, Walter?" asked Grace.
"Yes, indeed!" he exclaimed. "There is no place like home—especially home with mother in it."
"Or with father in it," added Grace as, at that moment, Captain Raymond joined the circle.
"Such a father as ours," said Lucilla, looking up at him with a smile of proud, fond affection. He returned it, accepted an offered seat, and asked Walter if he had been entertaining the company with tales of college doings and experiences.