t is a great luxury to get home after one has been
travelling."

"Very likely."

"No place like home, after all is done and said. Who was the fellow
that wrote that song, mother?"

"I forget; the paper said he spent a great many years in foreign
parts. My sake! Bobby, one would think by your talk that you had been
away from home for a year."

"It seems like a year," said he, as he transferred another quarter of
the famous apple pie to his plate. "I miss home very much. I don't
more than half like being among strangers so much."

"It is your own choice; no one wants you to go away from home."

"I must pay my debts, anyhow. Don't I owe Squire Lee sixty dollars?"

"But I can pay that."

"It is my affair, you see."

"If it is your affair, then I owe you sixty dollars."

"No, you don't; I calculate to pay my board now. I am old enough and
big enough to do something."

"You have done something ever since you were old enough to work."

"Not much; I don't wonder that miserable old hunker of a Hardhand
twitted me about it. By the way, have you heard anything from him?"

"Not a thing."

"He has got enough of us, I reckon."

"You mustn't insult him, Bobby, if you happen to see him."

"Never fear me."

"You know the Bible says we must love our enemies, and pray for them
that despitefully use us and persecute us."

"I should pray that the Old Nick might get him."

"No, Bobby; I hope you haven't forgot all your Sunday school lessons."

"I was wrong, mother," replied Bobby, a little moved. "I did not mean
so. I shall try to think as well of him as I can; but I can't help
thinking, if all the world was like him, what a desperate hard time we
should have of it."

"We must thank the Lord that he has given us so many good and true
men."

"Such as Squire Lee, for instance," added Bobby, as he rose from the
table and put his chair back against the wall. "The squire is fit to
be a king; and though I believe in the Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence, I wouldn't mind seeing a crown upon his
head."

"He will receive his crown in due time," replied Mrs. Bright, piously.

"The squire?"

"The crown of rejoicing, I mean."

"Just so; the squire is a nice man; and I know another just like him."

"Who?"

"Mr. Bayard; they are as near alike as two peas."

"I am dying to know about your journey."

"Wait a minute, mother, till we clear away the supper things;" and
Bobby took hold, as he had been accu