"O, Horace!" she sobbed again, this time clasping him close to her heart, and kissing him with a yearning fondness she had hardly ever shown since he was a little toddling baby. "My darling, darling boy!"
Horace thought by her manner they must all have been sadly frightened about him.
"I got lost in the woods, grandma; but it didn't hurt me any, only Pincher got his foot caught."
"Lost in the woods?" repeated she: "Grace thought you went home to dinner with Willy Snow."
So it seemed they had not worried about him at all: then what was grandma crying about?
"Don't go up stairs, dear," said she, as he brushed past her and laid his hand on the latch of the chamber door.
"But I want to see ma."
"Wait a little," said Mrs. Parlin, with a fresh burst of tears.
"Why, what is the matter, grandma; and where's Grace, and Susy, and Prudy?"
"Grace is with your mother, and the other children are at aunt Martha's. But if you've been in the woods all day, Horace, you must be very hungry."