"How do you do, my boy? You look better than I expected to see you after your hard year's work."
"Oh, I am all right, thank you, Aunt Hannah. Coming to see you has set me up!" laughed Ishmael, cordially returning her embrace.
"You, Sally! what are you doing there? grinning like a monkey? Go directly and make the kettle boil, and set the table. And tell that Jim, that's always loafing around you, to make himself useful as well as ornamental, and open them oysters that were brought from Cove Banks to-day. Why don't you go? what are you waiting for?"
"Please 'm, I hav'n't shook hands long o' Marse Ishmael yet," said
Sally, showing all her fine ivories.
Ishmael stepped forward and held out his hand, saying, as he kindly shook the girl's fat paw:
"How do you do, Sally? You grow better looking every day! And I have got a pretty coral breastpin in my trunk for you, to make up for that one the shanghai swallowed."
"Oh, Marse Ishmael, you needn't have taken no trouble, not on my account, sir, I am sure; dough I'm thousand times obleege to you, and shall be proud o' de breas'pin, 'cause I does love breas'pins, 'specially coral," said Sally, courtesying and smiling all over her face.
"Well, well," said Hannah impatiently, "now be off with you directly, and show your thankfulness by getting supper for your Marse Ishmael as quick as ever you can. Never mind the table—I'll set that."
Sally dropped another courtesy and vanished.
"Where did you say your trunk was, Ishmael?" inquired Gray, as they walked into the house.
"He never said it was anywhere; he only said he had a coral breastpin in it for Sally," put in the literal Hannah.
"My trunk is at the Steamboat Hotel in Shelton, Uncle Reuben. I could not at once find a cart to bring it over, for I was too anxious to see you all to spend time looking for one. So I left it with the landlord, with orders to forward it on Monday."
"Oh, sho! And what are you to do in the meantime? And Sally'll go crazy for a sight of her breastpin! So I'll just go out and make Sam put the horse to the light wagon, and go right after it; he'll jest have time to go and get it and come back afore it's dark," said Reuben; and without waiting to hear any of Ishmael's remonstrances, he went out immediately to give his orders to Sam.
Hannah followed Ishmael up to his own old room in the garret, to see that he had fresh water, fine soap, clean towels, and all that was requisite for his comfort.
And then leaving him to refresh himself with a wash, she returned downstairs to set the table for tea.
By the time she had laid her best damask table-cloth, and set out her best japan waiter and china tea-set, and put her nicest preserves in cut glass saucers, and set the iced plumcake in the middle of the table, Ishmael, looking fresh from his renewed toilet, came down into the parlor.
She immediately drew forward the easiest arm-chair for his accommodation.
He sat down in it and called the two children and the dog, who all gathered around him for their share of his caresses.
And at the same moment Reuben, having dispatched Sam on his errand to Shelton, came in and sat down, with his big hands on his knees, and his head bent forward, contemplating the group around Ishmael with immense satisfaction.
Hannah was going in and out between the parlor and the pantry bringing cream, butter, butter-milk, and so forth.
Ishmael lifted John upon his knees, and while smoothing back the flaxen curls from the child's well-shaped forehead, said:
"This little fellow has got a great deal in this head of his! What do you intend to make of him, Uncle Reuben?"
"Law, Ishmael, how can I tell!" grinned Reuben.
"You should give him an education and fit him for one of the learned professions; or, no; I will do that, if Heaven spares us both!" said Ishmael benevolently; then smiling down upon the child, he said:
"What would you like to be when you grow up, Johnny?"
"I don't know," answered inexperience.
"Would you like to be a lawyer?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"'Cause I wouldn't."
"Satisfactory! Would you like to be a doctor?"
"'No."
"Why?"
"'Cause I wouldn't."
"'As before.' Would you like to be a parson?"
"No."
"Why?"
"'Cause I wouldn't."
"Sharp little fellow, isn't he, Ishmael? Got his answer always ready!" said the father, rubbing his knees in delight.
Ishmael smiled at Reuben Gray and then turned to the child and said:
"What would you like to be, Johnny?"
"Well, I'd like to be a cart-driver like Sam, and drive the ox team!"
"Aspiring young gentleman!" said Ishmael, smiling.
"There now," said Hannah, who had heard the latter part of this conversation, "that's what I tell Reuben. He needn't think he is going to make ladies and gentlemen out of our children. They are just good honest workman's children, and will always be so; for 'what's bred in the bone will never come out in the flesh'; and 'trot mammy, trot daddy, the colt will never pace.' Cart-driver!" mocked Hannah, in intense disgust.
"Nonsense, Aunt Hannah! Why, don't you know that when I was Johnny's age my highest earthly ambition was to become a professor of odd jobs, like the renowned Jim Morris, who was certainly the greatest man of my acquaintance!"
While they were chatting away in this manner Sally brought in the coffee and tea, which was soon followed by dishes of fried oysters, stewed oysters, fried ham, and broiled chicken, and plates of waffles, rolls, and biscuits, and in fact by all the luxuries of a Maryland supper.
Hannah took her place at the head of the table and called her family around her.
And all sat down at the board. Even the dog squatted himself down by the side of Ishmael, where he knew he was sure of good treatment. Sally, neatly dressed, waited on the table. And presently Jim, who had a holiday this Saturday evening and was spending it with Sally, came in, and after shaking hands with "Mr. Ishmael" and welcoming him to the neighborhood, stood behind his chair and anticipated his wants as if he, Jim, had been lord-in-waiting upon a prince.
When supper was over and the service cleared away, Ishmael, Reuben, Hannah, and the children, who had been allowed to sit up a little longer in honor of Ishmael's visit, gathered together on the front porch to enjoy the delicious coolness of the clear, starlit, summer evening.
While they were still sitting there, chatting over the old times and the new days, the sound of wheels were heard approaching, and Sam drove up in the wagon, in which was Ishmael's trunk and a large box.
Jim was called in from the kitchen, where he had been engaged in making love to Sally, to assist in lifting the luggage in.
The trunk and the box were deposited in the middle of the parlor floor to be opened—because, forsooth, all that simple family wished to be present and look on at the opening.
Ishmael's personal effects were in the trunk they guessed; but what was in the box? that was the riddle and they could not solve it. Both the children pressed forward to see. Even the dog stood with his ears pricked, his nose straight and his eyes fixed on the interesting box as though he expected a fox to break cover from it as soon as it was opened.
Ishmael had mercy on their curiosity and ended their suspense by ripping off the cover.
And