“My! What great big boys! You can’t possibly be my little baby brother Roger. And Joe! Why he is like a real young gentleman in his tennis suit!” And Dorothy kissed her brothers over and over again, as they rode from the depot in the pony cart to the home of Aunt Winnie, “The Cedars,” at North Birchland.

“Oh, I don’t know,” drawled Joe, in his good-natured way. “You can’t complain. You’ve been doing some growing on your own account.”

“And you have got awfully pretty,” lisped Roger, as he “snuggled” up closer to his sister.

“I think you are just as perfectly handsome as any big lady.”

“My, you little flatterbox!” and Dorothy gave him an oldtime squeeze. “You have learned more than your A, B, Cs. at kindergarten. I received all your letters but could not answer the last two as we had such an awful lot of writing to do at the close when examinations came.”

“Did you pass?” asked the younger brother, by way of showing his understanding of the scholastic season.

“Oh, yes. I guess Tavia and I did about as well as the others.”

“Why didn’t Tavia come?” went on Roger.

“She is coming, later. You know she had to go home to Dalton first. Oh, how lovely The Cedars look! And there is daddy on the porch!”

Dorothy could scarcely remain in the cart as it rumbled along the shady drive that led to the broad veranda of Mrs. White’s handsome summer residence. Major Dale was waiting to greet his daughter, and Aunt Winnie came down the steps as the cart drove up.

“Isn’t she big!” exclaimed Roger, as the major folded Dorothy close in his arms in a most affectionate manner.

“My dear,” whispered Mrs. White, pressing upon Dorothy’s cheek a kiss of welcome. “You have grown!” and the glance that accompanied this simple remark spoke in more than words Mrs. White’s admiration for her pretty niece, and told Dorothy at once, that her Aunt Winnie was entirely satisfied with the particular lines that “her growth” had taken on.

“You all look so well, and I am so glad to be home again at last,” said Dorothy as soon as she had a chance to express her opinion. “It is perfectly fine here.”

“Here come the boys!” called Joe, who was just turning around on the long drive, preparatory 

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