Uncles and aunts seemed a very desirable
acquisition to this little Willy, who had always been a great pet
among his relatives.
"He won't make you a bit of trouble, if you don't mind taking him. He
never teases nor frets, and he won't be homesick," his mother had told
his grandmother.
"I know all about that," Grandma Stockton had replied. "I'd just as
soon take him as a doll-baby."
[Illustration: WATCHING FOR THE COACH.]
Willy Norton really was a very sweet boy. He proved it this morning
by standing there so patiently and never singing out, "Ain't you most
ready, Grandma?" although it did seem to him she never would be.
His mother was helping her pack too; he could hear them talking. "I
guess I sha'n't put in father's best coat," Grandma Stockton remarked,
among other things. "He won't be in Exeter over Sunday, and won't want
it to go to meetin', and it musses it up so to put it in a valise."
"Well, I don't know as I would as long as you're coming back here,"
said his mother.
After a while she remarked further, "If father should want that coat,
you can send for it, and I can put in Willy's other shoes with it."
Willy noticed that, because he himself had rather regretted not taking
his other shoes. He had only his best ones, and he thought he might
want to go berrying in Exeter and would spoil them tramping through
the bushes and briers, and he did not like to wear shabby shoes.
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