“I see the lights of home!” sang out Sam, as they made the last turn.  “I can tell you, it makes a fellow feel good, doesn’t it?”

“It’s a true saying that there is no place like home,” returned Dick.  “Here we are!”

The carriage made a turn around a clump of trees and then dashed up to the piazza.  From the house rushed several people.

“Here we are, father!” sang out Dick.  “How are you, Uncle Randolph, and how are you, Aunt Martha?”

“Dick!” cried Mr. Anderson Rover, and embraced his oldest son.  “And Tom and Sam!  I am glad to see you looking so well!”

“My boys!” murmured their aunt, as of old, and gave each a sounding kiss.

“Getting to be big young men,” was their uncle’s comment.  “They won’t be boys much longer.”

“I’m going to stay a boy all my life, Uncle Randolph,” answered Tom, promptly.  “By the way,” he went on, with a merry twinkle in his eye, “how is scientific farming getting on?”

“Splendidly, Thomas, splendidly.”

“Not losing money any more, then?”

“Well—­er—­I have lost a little, just a little, this summer.  But next summer I expect grand results.”

“Going to grow a new kind of turnip?”

“No I—­”

“Or maybe it’s a squash this time, uncle.”

“No, I am trying—­”

“Or a parsnip.  I have heard there is a great call for parsnips in New Zealand.  The natives use them for dyeing—­”

“Thomas!” interrupted his father, sternly.  “Please don’t start to joke so early.  To-morrow will do.”

“All right, I’ll subside,” answered Tom.  “But really, do you know, I’m bubbling all over, like an uncorked soda-water bottle.”

“Don’t you feel hungry?”

“Hungry!  Just you try me and see.”

“I made a big cherry pie for you, Tom,” said his aunt.  “I know you like it.”

“Oh, Aunt Martha, that’s worth an extra hug.”  He gave it to her.  “Your pie can’t be beat!”

“And I’ve got some fried chicken.  Dick likes that.”

“And I like it, too,” said Sam.

“Yes, I know it, Sam.  But I made some spice cakes too—­”

“Oh, aunt, just my weakness!” cried the youngest Rover.  “There’s another kiss for you, and another!  You’re the best aunt a boy ever had!”

They were soon washed up and sitting down to the table.  Scarcely had they seated themselves than Alexander Pop came in, acting as waiter, something he always did when the boys came home.  Alexander, usually called Aleck for short, was a good-natured colored man who had once been employed at Putnam Hall.  He had gone to Africa with the Rover boys, as already related in “The Rover Boys in the Jungle,” and had been with them on numerous other trips.  He was now employed steadily in the Rover household.

“Howde do, gen’men?” he said, with a broad grin on his coal-black face.

“Aleck!” all three cried together; “how are you?”