upon as if he had been a member of the family, and whom they had wept as dead.
For a time all were too much moved to speak more than a few disjointed words, for the sad changes which had occurred since they had last met were present in all their thoughts. Nelly, the youngest, was the first to recover, and wiping away her tears, she said, half laughing, half crying:
"I hate you, Dick, frightening us into believing that you were killed, when you were alive and well all the time. But I never quite believed it, after all. I said all along that you couldn't have been killed; didn't I, mamma? and that monkeys always got out of scrapes somehow."
Mrs. Hargreaves smiled.
"I don't think you put it in that way exactly, Nelly; but I will grant that between your fits of crying you used to assert over and over again that you did not believe that they were killed. And now, my dear boy, tell us how this seeming miracle has come about."
Then they sat down quietly, and Dick told the whole story; and Mrs. Hargreaves warmly congratulated him on the manner in which they had escaped, and upon the presence of mind they had shown. Then she in turn told him what they had gone through and suffered. Edith burst into tears, and left the room; and her mother presently went after her.
"Well, Nelly, I have seen a lot since I saw you, have I not?"
"Yes, you are a dear brave boy, Dick," the girl said.
"Even though I am a monkey, eh?" Dick answered. "And did you really cry when you thought I was dead?"
"Yes," the girl said demurely; "I always cry when I lose my pets. There was the dearest puppy I ever had"
