"Papa takes me on his sometimes," said Ned, "but not so often now as he used to when I was a little boy."
"Ha, ha, ha! what are you now, sonny?" asked a voice that seemed to come from a distance.
Ned colored up. "I'm a good deal bigger now than I was once," he said.
"And hoping to grow a good deal bigger yet," added his father, smiling down into the little flushed, excited face.
"Yes, papa, I hope to be as big as brother Max, or you, some of these days," returned the child.
"Don't be in a hurry about growing up," said the voice that had spoken a moment before.
"Grown folk have troubles and trials the little ones know nothing about."
"But the grown-ups may hope to do more in the world than the little ones," said Walter.
"Is that why you are growing up, Uncle Walter?" asked Ned.
"That's why I am glad to grow up," replied Walter.