"I am very glad you appreciate all those blessings, my little son," said his mother's voice close at his side.
"Yes, mamma. And oh, mamma! can't Elsie and I go along with the rest of you to New Orleans to-morrow?"
"I think so," she replied with a smile. "I am pretty sure your father will say yes if you ask him. Then he will have all his children along, and that is what he likes."
"He and Uncle Harold went down to the quarter," said Elsie, "and here they come now."
Ned hurried to meet them, preferred his request, and the next moment came running back with the joyful announcement, "Papa says, yes we may. Oh, Elsie, aren't you glad?"
"Yes," she said. "I always like to be with papa and mamma and grandma, and it's ever so pleasant to be on our yacht."
"'Specially when we have both papa and brother Max to make it go all right," said Ned.
"You think it takes the two of us, do you?" laughed his father, taking a seat near his wife and drawing the little fellow in between his knees.
"No, papa; I know you could do it all by your own self," returned Ned. "But when brother Max is there you don't have to take the trouble to mind how things are going all the time."
"No, that's a fact," returned his father, with a pleased laugh. "Brother Max can be trusted, and knows how to manage that large vessel quite as well as papa does. But what will you and Elsie do while we older people are shopping?"