“Oh, a whole week!” Vieve cried, jumping around him in her glee. “That’s the reason you’ve brought your baggage!” and she glanced toward the barrel.
“Did he bring that in here?” Kit asked. “That won’t do. It came from a hot place, but it must stay in the cool up here. Have you got a cool room we can put it in?”
“I think you’ll find all the other side of the house cool enough,” Mrs. Silburn laughed. “We don’t keep any fires across the hall now; it saves both wood and trouble.”
Kit rolled the barrel across the hall into the cold parlor, and hurried back to the stove. But he could not stay in one place long—not for the first hour or two. He had to go to the windows to see how the yard looked, and into the kitchen to look at the familiar pans hanging against the wall, and upstairs to the little room with the sloping ceiling where he had slept so many years. When he came down again, Vieve was putting on her hat and coat.
“Say, avast there, now,” he cried; “you’ll have to take another tack. (I suppose you’ll expect me to talk sea talk, now I’m a sailor.) I know what you’re after, Vieve, and it won’t do. No going out to buy more things for supper. I’m not the prodigal calf, you know—the prodigal son, I mean. Whatever you were going to have for your own suppers is just what I want.”
“Just put yourself in that chair, Mr. Silburn,” Vieve laughed, pointing to her father’s armchair, that she had drawn up to the fire for him, “and don’t begin to interfere so soon;” and she was gone before he could stop her. And Mrs. Silburn brought her husband’s slippers, that were carefully laid away, and would have untied Kit’s shoes if he had let her.
“You’ve had a hard time of it, Kit,” she said, “and we must make you comfortable at home.”
“Indeed, I’ve not, mother,” he answered; “you mustn’t spoil me on that account. I’ve had a splendid time, and enjoyed every minute. I’ve made some good friends, too, since I went away.”
“I’m sure you would do that, Kit,” she answered, her face full of motherly pride. “And you’ve grown so, too!”
It was not long before supper was ready, for Vieve was both cook and errand girl while her mother was busy sewing.