A Surprising Journey

T HE day that Bobby was five years old he went on a journey with his father and mother, and the funny part of it was that he did not know where they were going.

When his mother was dressing him he asked, "Where are we going, Mother?"

But Mother only said, "Oh, somewhere with Father."

And when Bobby asked him, Father laughed and answered, "You will know when you get there." It certainly was puzzling.

First of all they went to the railway station and got on a train.

"Now I know," said Bobby. "We are going to see Grandmother."

But when by and by the train stopped at a little town where Father said they must get off, why it was not the place where Grandmother lived at all!

A carriage and two fine horses were waiting for them at the town and away they rode through the streets and then out into a big beautiful country road.

"Now I know," said Bobby. "We are going to my Uncle John's house where we went when I was a baby."

"You have never been where we are going in all the days of your life, but there is no place to which you would rather go, not even to Grandmother's," said Father.

Bobby could not think of a place where he would rather go than to Grandmother's.

"Have you ever been there, Father?" he asked.

Oh, yes, Father had been there long ago. And he liked it so well that he had gone again and again.

"Have you been, Mother?"

Yes, once when Grandmother was in the city to stay with Bobby, and Mother and Father had gone out together, Father had taken Mother to the very place where they were going now.

Dear me, what a long way it was!

"Half a mile to go," said Father.

Then—"A quarter of a mile."

And at last—"Hurrah! Here we are."

The carriage stopped with a jolt, and Bobby looked out to see a little brown house by the country road. Where had he ever seen that house before? It had wide, shining windows, and a great roomy porch where morning-glory vines twisted and twined. And in a tree close by the porch hung a swing!

"Why, it looks just like the home that we are going to have some day!" said Bobby, nearly falling out of the carriage in his excitement.

And what do you think? It was their home. Father had bought it for them.

They moved into it the very next week.