CHAPTER XXIV.
HOME AGAIN.
The Major was at the station to meet them.

Uncle John had shyly suggested a telegram, and Patsy had decided they could stand the expense for the pleasure of seeing the old Dad an hour sooner.
The girl caught sight of him outside the gates, his face red and beaming as a poppy in bloom and his snowy moustache bristling with eagerness.

At once she dropped her bundles and flew to the Major's arms, leaving the little man in her wake to rescue her belongings and follow after.
He could hardly see Patsy at all, the Major wrapped her in such an ample embrace; but bye and bye she escaped to get her breath, and then her eyes fell upon the meek form holding her bundles.
"Oh, Dad," she cried, "here's Uncle John, who has come to live with us; and if you don't love him as much as I do I'll make your life miserable!" "On which account," said the Major, grasping the little man's hand most cordially, "I'll love Uncle John like my own brother.

And surely," he added, his voice falling tenderly, "my dear Violet's brother must be my own.

Welcome, sir, now and always, to our little home.