?"

"Dick!" cried Mr. Anderson Rover, and embraced his oldest son. "And Tom
and Sam! I am glad to see you looking so well!"

"My boys!" murmured their aunt, as of old, and gave each a sounding
kiss.

"Getting to be big young men," was their uncle's comment. "They won't
be boys much longer."

"I'm going to stay a boy all my life, Uncle Randolph," answered Tom,
promptly. "By the way," he went on, with a merry twinkle in his eye,
"how is scientific farming getting on?"

"Splendidly, Thomas, splendidly."

"Not losing money any more, then?"

"Well--er--I have lost a little, just a little, this summer. But next
summer I expect grand results."

"Going to grow a new kind of turnip?"

"No I--"

"Or maybe it's a squash this time, uncle."

"No, I am trying--"

"Or a parsnip. I have heard there is a great call for parsnips in New
Zealand. The natives use them for dyeing--"

"Thomas!" interrupted his father, sternly. "Please don't start to joke
so early. To-morrow will do."

"All right, I'll subside," answered Tom. "But really, do you know, I'm
bubbling all over, like an uncorked soda-water bottle."

"Don't you feel hungry?"

"Hungry! Just you try me and see."

"I made a big cherry pie for you, Tom," said his aunt. "I know you like
it."

"Oh, Aunt Martha, that's worth an extra hug." He gave it to her. "Your
pie can't be beat!"

"And I've got some fried chicken. Dick likes that."

"And I like it, too," said Sam.

"Yes, I know it, Sam. But I made some spice cakes too--"

"Oh, aunt, just my weakness!" cried the youngest Rover. "There's
another kiss for you, and another! You're the best aunt a boy ever
had!"

They were soon washed up and sitting down to the table. Scarcely had
they seated themselves than Alexander Pop came in, acting as waiter,
something he always did when the boys came home. Alexander, usually
called Aleck for short, was a good-natured colored man who had once
been employed at Putnam Hall. He had gone to Africa with the Rover
boys, as already related in "The Rover Boys in the Jungle," and had
been with them on numerous other trips. He was now employed steadily in
the Rover household.

"Howde do, gen'men?" he said, with a broad grin on his coal-black face.

"Aleck!" all three cried together; "how are you?"

"Fust-rate, thank yo'. Yo' am looking right smart, too," went on the
colored man. And then he began to serve them with the best the place
afforded. He loved dearly to talk, but th