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Friday morning he awoke with the thought, “this is the last day.” However, Willy was a child, and, in the morning, a day still looked interminable to him, especially when there were good times looming up in it. To-day he expected to take a very long ride with uncle Frank, who was going to Keene to buy a new horse.

“I want Willy to go with me, to help pick him out,” he told Grandma Stockton, and Willy took it in serious earnest. They were going to carry lunch and be gone all day. This promised pleasure looked so big to the boy, as he became wider awake, that he could see nothing at all beyond it, not even the sad departure and end of this delightful visit on the morrow. So he went down to breakfast as happy as ever.

“That boy certainly looks better,” Grandpa Stockton remarked, as the coffee was being poured.

“We must have him weighed before he goes home,” Grandma said, beaming at him.

“That’s one thing I thought of, ’bout stayin’ a week longer,” Grandpa went on. “It seems to be doin’ Sonny, here, so much good.” Grandpa had a very slow, deliberate way of speaking.

Willy laid down his spoon and stared at him, but he said nothing.

“I don’t see what you were thinking of not to plan to stay longer in the first place,” said aunt Annie. “I don’t like it much.” She made believe to pout her pretty lips.

“Well,” said uncle Frank, “I’ll send for that coat right away this morning, so you’ll be sure to get it to-morrow night.”

“Yes,” said Grandpa, “I’d like to hev it to wear to meetin’. Mother thinks my old one ain’t just fit.”

“No, it ain’t,” spoke up Grandma. “It does well enough when you’re at home, where folks know you, but it’s different among strangers. An’ you’ve got to have it next week, anyhow.”

Willy looked up at his grandmother. “Grandma,” said he tremblingly, “ain’t we going home to-morrow?”

“Why, bless the child!” said she. “I forgot he didn’t know. We talked about it last night after he’d gone to bed.”

Then she explained. They were going to stay another week. Next week Wednesday, Grandpa and Grandma Perry had been married twenty-five years, and they were going to have a silver wedding. So they were going to remain and be present at it, and Grandpa was going to send for his best coat to wear.

Willy looked so radiant that they all laughed, and uncle Frank said he was going to keep him always, and let him help him in the store.

Before they started off to buy the horse, uncle Frank telegraphed to Ashbury about the coat; he also mentioned Willy’s shoes.

The two had a beautiful ride, and bought a handsome black horse. Uncle Frank consulted Willy a great deal about the purchase, and expatiated on his good judgment in the matter after they got home. One of Willy’s chief charms was that he stood so much flattery of this kind, without being disagreeably elated by it. His frank, childish delight was always pretty to see.

The next afternoon he went berrying with a little boy who lived next door. At five o’clock aunt Annie ran over to the store to see if the coat had come.

“It has,” she told her mother when she returned; “it came at one o’clock, and Mother Perry gave it to Willy to bring home.”

“To Willy? Why, what did the child do with it?” Grandma said wonderingly. “He didn’t bring it home.”

“Maybe he carried it over to Josie Allen’s and left it there.” Josie Allen was the boy with whom Willy had gone berrying. His house stood very near uncle Frank’s, and both were nearly across the road from the store.

“Well, maybe he did, he was in such a hurry to go berrying,” said Grandma assentingly.

About six o’clock, when the family were all at the tea-table, Willy came clumping painfully in his big shoes into the yard. There were blisters on his small, delicate heels, but nobody knew it. His little fair face was red and tired, but radiant. His pail was heaped and rounded up with the most magnificent berries of the season.