Mrs.Preston wouldn't object, I'm thinkin'." "If Andy was at home I wouldn't feel so lonely." While she was speaking Andy himself had crept under the window, and heard her words.

He was planning a surprise, but waited for the last moment to announce himself.

He waited to hear what reply his mother would say.
"I think we'll see him soon, Mary, dear." "What makes you say so, mother ?" "I don't know.

I've got a feeling in my bones that we'll soon meet.
The blessed saints grant that it may be so." "Your bones are right this time, mother," said a merry voice.
And Andy, popping up from his stooping position, showed himself at the window.
There was a simultaneous scream from Mary and her mother.
"Is it you, Andy ?" exclaimed Mary.
"It isn't nobody else," said Andy, rather ungrammatically.
"Come in, Andy, my darling--come in, and tell me if you are well," said his mother, dropping the shirt on which she was at work, and rising to her feet.
"I'll be with you in a jiffy," said Andy.
And, with a light leap, he cleared the window sill, and stood in the presence of his mother and sister, who vied with each other in hugging the returned prodigal.
"You'll choke me, Sister Mary," said Andy, good-humoredly.

"Maybe you think I'm your beau." "Don't speak to her of beaux, and she only eleven years old," said his mother.