dyne was taking it all, that he
intended to make the best of having a poet for a son, and to put it
through with his usual energetic force.

Peter was perfectly delighted at having all his Hayesboro friends come.
He wrote them all letters, and Mabel wrote them notes. After that Peter
got uneasy and made Judge Vandyne write to everybody, and the next day
he insisted that I should write, too.

"Oh, I wish Sam could come, but I know he can't," I said, with a sudden
hurt place just where I was about to swallow my mushroomed cutlet.

"Sam not come?" said Peter, growing white about his mouth and throwing
down his napkin.

"Oh, Peter, Sam didn't want me to say anything about it, but he doesn't
think it is possible for him to get away and--and you know, Peter, Sam
has to buy the sheep he wants to put in the woods; and I told you that
another mule--"

"I can't, I can't stand it for Samboy not to be here," said Peter as he
pushed his cutlet away from him, upset his glass, and turned over a vase
that in turn knocked down the center vase of roses, besides upsetting
the composure of the butler and one footman. I saw it was going to be a
regular poetic outburst, such as Mammy would have called a tantrum in
Sam or me, and that Mabel was positively scared and Miss Greenough much
pained.

"Crittenden will be here," said Judge Vandyne in a perfectly calm and
certain voice. "Don't worry, son!"

I knew he meant that he would lend Sam the money, or I thought I knew
that, and I felt perfectly sure that Sam wouldn't come. Nobody knows
Samuel Foster Crittenden as I do; and the reason he is so congenial with
his mules is that he is so like them in "setness" of disposition. I just
raged at him in my heart, for I knew from the way I felt myself how poor
Peter wanted him; but I controlled myself and went right on talking
about how I knew the others would come and how much they would enjoy it.

"Julia has never been to New York. Won't she be delicious?" I exclaimed
as we came to her on the list. Peter had put her first.

"Delicious is the right word," said Peter, and he then launched forth in
a description of Julia that I would hardly have recognized, though I had
been born across the street from her and have loved her devotedly from
our second years. It is such a joy to have two people whom you love
appreciative of each other, and I knew that Julia fully reciprocated
Peter's interested friendship for her. She had wept on my shoulder at