at
special key won't get lost again right away."

Edna felt that she had brought this lecture upon Reliance and felt
rather badly to have done so, but the prospect of buckwheat cakes soon
drove her self-reproach away and she went in to say good morning to her
grandparents, well satisfied with the world in general and content to
look ahead rather than at what was now past and gone, and which could
not be altered.

Before the day had far advanced, came the first of the arrivals, Aunt
Alice Barker and her two boys, Ben and Willis. Ben and Edna were great
chums, though he was the older of the two boys. Ben was alert, full of
fun and ready to joke on every occasion, while Willis was rather shy and
had not much to say to his little cousin, whom, by the way, he did not
know so very well.

Edna would fain have spent the morning in the kitchen from which issued
delectable odors, but Amanda had declared she wanted all the room there
was, that she had scatted out the cats and dogs and she would have to
scat out children, too, if they came bothering around. Therefore, to
avoid this catastrophe, Edna took herself to a different part of the
house, and was standing at one of the front windows when the carriage
drove up.

"Oh, grandpa," she sang out, "here come Aunt Alice and her boys! Hurry!
Hurry! or they will get here before we can be there to meet them."

Her grandfather threw down his newspaper and laid aside his spectacles.
"Well, well," he said, "it takes the young eyes to find out who is
coming. I didn't suppose Allie would be here till afternoon. What team
have they. Why didn't they let us know so we could send for them!"

He followed Edna, who was already at the front door tugging at the bolt,
then in another moment the two were out on the porch while yet the
carriage was some yards away. Ben caught sight of them. "Hello!" he
cried out. "Here we are, bag and baggage. Didn't expect us so soon, did
you grandpa?"

"No, son, we didn't. How did you come to steal a march on us in this
way?"

"The express was behind time so we caught it at the junction, instead of
having to wait for the train we expected to take. It didn't seem worth
while to telephone; in fact we didn't have time, so we just got this
team from Mayville and here we are. How are you Pinky Blooms?" He darted
at Edna, tousled her hair, picked her up and slung her over his shoulder
as if she were a bag of meal, and dropped her on the top step of the
porch, sh