said Grandpa, as they made their way toward home over a
little pathway of stones tumbled together in the brook to make a bridge,
"Never mind, Sunny. If we can't find them, we can't, and there is no use
in feeling bad about it any longer. You didn't mean to lose the bonds, we
all know that, so we'll just stop crying over spilled milk and cheer up
and be happy again."

But it was a very unhappy little boy who went to bed early that
night--for the long tramp had tired him--and for several days after the
loss of the kite Sunny Boy kept rather closely to the house.

He liked to be in the kitchen with Araminta or on the side porch with
Grandma and Mother. Jimmie and Bruce tried to coax him to go with them,
but he said politely that he didn't feel like it.

However, as the time drew near for his father's visit Sunny Boy cheered
up, and by the morning that Daddy was expected he felt quite like his
usually sunny self.

"Are you going to meet Daddy?" he asked Mother that morning, as he
brushed his hair after she had parted it for him.

"I don't believe I'll go down," answered Mrs. Horton. "If you and Grandpa
go, that will be enough and I'll be at the gate waiting for you."

"Daddy's coming!" Sunny Boy pounded his spoon against his bread and milk
bowl.

"Sunny!" said Mother warningly.

"He's most here now!" and Sunny's feet hammered against the table so that
the coffee pot danced a jig.

"Sunny Boy!" implored Grandma.

"I'm going to meet him!" This time Sunny Boy upset his glass of water
with a wild sweep of his arm.

Grandpa pushed back his chair.

"I think we'd better start," he observed, "before a certain young man
goes out of the window. If you're as glad as all this to think that
Daddy's coming, what are you going to do when you really see him?"

But Sunny Boy was already out of the room and down at the gate where
Jimmie stood holding Peter and Paul already harnessed to the carryall.

"Let me feed 'em sugar," teased Sunny Boy. "Hold me up, Jimmie, I'm not
'fraid of their teeth now."

"You pile in," said Jimmie good-naturedly. "If you're going to meet that
train, you want to start in a few minutes. Say, Sunny, what ails you this
morning?" for Sunny Boy had gone around to the back of the carriage,
scrambled up over the top of the second seat, and was now tumbling head
first into the cushions of the front seat.

Grandpa came out in a more leisurely fashion and took the reins.

"All right, Jimmie, we're off.