“I don’t believe you need worry about papa being lonely without you and Gracie, Lu,” remarked Max, a little teasingly. “You forget that he will still have more than half his children at home, at least, when I am here.”
“Why, so he will!” she exclaimed, as if struck by a new and not altogether pleasant thought. “But the others are only babies!”
“The little fellow won’t amount to much for company, I suppose,” laughed Max, “but Elsie can afford one a great deal of sport sometimes, can’t she, papa?”
“Yes,” answered the captain. Then to Lulu, “A week will soon pass to an old man like your father, my child.”
“Papa, you’re not old at all! I won’t have you called old?” she cried indignantly.
He laughed at that. “All the same, a week will be but a short time to me,” he said.
“Papa, what is our new brother’s name?” asked Grace.
“Edward, for his mother’s father.”
“Another little Ned,” remarked Max.
“You are not an only son any longer, Maxie,” said Lulu.