"What would you say as to visiting Viamede?"
"Oh, papa, that I'd like it ever so much!"
"Well, your grandma has given us all an invitation to go there, and we are very likely to accept it. It will make us a little later in getting home than I had intended, but it will be so great a pleasure that I think we will all feel paid."
"Yes, indeed!" cried Ned, dancing up and down in delight, "I think it's just splendid that we can go there. I don't know any lovelier or more delightful place to go to; do you, papa?"
"And I'm as glad as you are, Ned," said Elsie. "Let's go and thank grandma. Yonder she is in her usual seat under the awning."
"Yes," said their father, "you owe her thanks, and it would be well to give them at once," and they hastened to do his bidding.
Grandma Elsie was seated with the other ladies of their party in that pleasant spot under the awning, where there were plenty of comfortable seats, and they were protected from sun and shower. The gentlemen were there, too. Some were reading and some—the younger ones—chatting and laughing merrily among themselves. Into this group the children came rushing, full of excitement and glee.
"Oh grandma," they cried, talking both at once, "we're so glad we're going to Viamede, so much obliged to you for inviting us, because it's such a dear, beautiful place and seems to be one of our homes."
"Yes, you must consider it so, my dears; because it is mine, and I consider my dear grandchildren as mine, too," was grandma's smiling, affectionate rejoinder.
"As I do, mamma," said Violet, "and I am sure no children ever had a better, kinder grandmother."