Lucy talked very fast. Her cheeks were red as roses and her lips were bright with excitement.
"Only four weeks! Yes, that is all, but it has been a long time to me," said Uncle Sam, as he bent down to take Lucy in his arms.
"You don't know how I have missed you children," he added. "I have been a lonesome old man without you."
"We have ever so much to tell you," said Joe, who had followed Lucy. "You know, this was our first visit to Philadelphia. We had never seen our great-aunt before, either. She has lived there ever since she was a young girl."
"She was so good, we began to love her at once," Lucy went on. "She has a soft voice and she wears a gray dress and a white kerchief around her neck all the time. When she spoke to me, she always said thee or thou instead of you."
"That was because she is a Quaker," Joe broke in.
"I used to know your Aunt Rachel," said Uncle Sam. "It was a long time ago, though. Now go on and tell me all about your visit."
The children had never heard that Uncle Sam had once loved their Aunt Rachel very dearly. Everyone thought they would be married. Then she went from home on a visit. While she was away she met a young Quaker who soon became her husband.
Perhaps Uncle Sam never got over his love for the children's aunt. Anyway, he never married.
"There are not very many Quakers in the country now," said the old man as the children finished telling him about their visit. "There was a time when they were glad to come to America. It was the only way they could have peace. Would you like to hear about it?"