n.

"Uncle Nathan!"

"Yes, dear child! Would I could have got to you sooner;" and he held
the weary head close to his generous heart, and smoothed the worn
brow.

"I felt I was growing old, and had a hankering after a home to die in,
and always the face of my little niece, Carrie, seemed to give me the
heartiest welcome."

"Then you didn't die," said Arthur, looking on the scene as if it were
a part of a fairy story.

"Of course I didn't. Came near it, a dozen times, but always escaped.
Couldn't see why I was spared and better folks taken, but it's all
clear now. Why, I had as hard work finding out anything about Ned
Mulford, or Ned Mulford's widow, as if I'd been trying to find Captain
Kidd."

"It's because of our poverty," sighed the widow.

"Yes, I suppose so. It's the way of the world! But who cares? We'll
begin the world anew."

Mrs. Mulford stared at hearing her own words repeated, and Bridget,
who kept an ear on the proceedings, stood for a moment in open-mouthed
amazement, much as if she feared that there was to be another great
convulsion of nature.

"Yes," continued Uncle Nathan, "yes, that's what brought me back.
Money don't make a home, I know that well enough, for I've seen it
tried. Arthur, what are your plans?"

"I was going into Mr. Chase's grocery the first of January."

"Do you want to? Any taste for hams, herrings, tape, and
shoe-strings?"

"No, sir," replied Arthur, laughing at the combination, "but I'd like
to help mother. I promised father to see after her."

"You've done your duty. But my opinion is you'd rather go to college
than into a grocery."

"Oh, sir!" and the flush on the boy's face was not to be
misunderstood.

"College it is, then. Carrie, you are to be my housekeeper; these are
my little girls;" clasping the children in a hearty embrace, "and see
if we don't turn out a happier family than any Barnum ever exhibited."

The Christmas dinner was a marvel of cookery, and Uncle Nathan
enlivened the meal with accounts of his adventures.

"And this was the Christmas I had dreaded!" said Mrs. Mulford, as she
retired to her room.

The children had reluctantly gone to bed, fearing that this good
"Santa Claus," as they persisted in calling Uncle Nathan, would
disappear in the night, and leave them as suddenly as he came.

Arthur dreamed of his books and college, and woke up half a dozen
times in the night to assure himself that the great man sleeping so
soundly beside hi