LEA VING HOME. 75
_ “I must stay until after Thanksgiving, I am sure I
must,” I replied. “T know Mr. Simpson will not want
me before. It would not be Thanksgiving away from
home,—no, indeed it would not! But father,” I added,
after a pause, “ father—what will he say to it, Jane?”

“Why, in the evening, when we are all sitting to-
gether, you ask him, and we will all jon in.” _

Such was the plan of my siaters,—for Mary was soon
let into the searet revealed by the almanac.

“T know we can bring it about,” said the sanguine
Jane; and no less sure was I.

That day, on going towards the corner, who should
clap me on the shoulders and give me a boisterous
welcome, but Charley Frazier. Charley and I lived no
longer side by side. His father had removed into his
new house, situated in a different part of the village.
Iwas very glad to see Charley. Six months before that
he had left town, to become a clerk in a shop at C——.

“But, Charley, what are you at home for?” I in-

quired.
“Oh! I came home to spend Thanksgiving, but I