The coming of the aunt was not a great event in his life.
"Just seven her last birthday." "All right, she's big enough.

We'll take her out and teach her to fish.
Hello, granny!" and the boy loosened his arm as he darted up the steps toward Martha.

"Got the finest mess of fish coming up here in a little while you ever laid your eyes on," he shouted, catching the old nurse's cap from her head and clapping it upon his own, roaring with laughter, as he fled in the direction of the kitchen.
Jane joined in the merriment and, moving a chair from the hall, took her seat on the porch to await the boy's return.

She was too happy to busy herself about the house or to think of any of her outside duties.
Doctor John would not be in until the afternoon, and so she would occupy herself in thinking out plans to make her sister's home-coming a joyous one.
As she looked down over the garden as far as the two big gate-posts standing like grim sentinels beneath the wide branches of the hemlocks, and saw how few changes had taken place in the old home since her girl sister had left it, her heart thrilled with joy.

Nothing really was different; the same mass of tangled rose-vines climbed over the porch--now quite to the top of the big roof, but still the same dear old vines that Lucy had loved in her childhood; the same honeysuckle hid the posts; the same box bordered the paths.