"Oh, papa, are we really going there?" cried the little girl, fairly dancing with delight. "I'll be so glad to see the Keith cousins at the cottage, and those at Magnolia Hall, and the others at Torriswood. And I'll show Tiny to them, and they'll be sure to be pleased to see him," she added, hugging her pet, which, as usual, she had in her arms.
"Probably they will," said her father. "Do you think of giving him to any one of them?"
"Give my little pet Tiny away? Why, papa! no indeed! I couldn't think of such a thing!" she cried, hugging her pet still closer. "I'm fond of him, papa, and I'm pretty sure he's fond of me; he seems to want to snuggle up close to me all the time."
"Yes; I think he is fond of you and won't want to leave you, except for a little while now and then to run up and down the trees and round the grounds. That will be his play; and when he gets hungry he will go back to you for something to eat."
Ned, with his pet in his arms, had joined them just in time to hear his father's last sentence.
"Are you talking about Elsie's Tiny, papa?" he asked.
"Yes, my son, and what I said will apply to your Tee-tee just as well. I think if my children are good and kind to the little fellows they will not want to run away."
"I have been good to him so far," said Ned, patting and stroking his pet as he spoke, "and I mean to keep on. Papa, where are we going now? Elsie and I were talking about it a while ago, and we wondered if we were now on the way home."
"Would you like to be?" asked his father.
"Yes, papa; or to go somewhere else first; just as pleases you."