“And how have you been?”

“Me?  Oh, I’ve been takin’ it easy—­since Master Tom quit plaguing me.”

“Why, I never plague anybody,” murmured Tom, with a look of injured innocence on his round face.  He reached out and caught some snow from a nearby bush.  “Say, Jack, what is that on the horse’s hind foot?” he went on.

“Where?  I don’t see nuthin’,” answered the hired man, and leaned over the dashboard of the turnout to get a better view.  As his head went forward Tom quickly let the snow in his hand fall down the man’s neck, inside his collar.

“Hi! hi!  Wow!” spluttered Jack Ness, straightening up and twisting his shoulders.  “Say, what did you put that snow down my back for?”

“Just to keep you from sweating too much, Jack,” answered Tom with a grin.

“At your old tricks again,” groaned the hired man.  “Now, I reckon the house will be turned upside down till you go back to college.”

When the boys got in sight of the big farm house they set up a ringing shout that quickly brought their father and their uncle and aunt to the door.  And behind these appeared the ebony face of Aleck Pop, the colored man who was now a fixture of the Rover household.

“Hello, everybody!” cried Tom, making a flying leap from the sleigh the instant it drew up to the piazza.  “Isn’t this jolly, though?” And he rushed to his Aunt Martha and gave her a hug and kiss, and then shook hands with his father and his Uncle Randolph Dick and Sam were close behind him, and went through a similar performance.

“My! my!  Don’t squeeze the breath out of me!” cried Mrs. Rover, as she beamed with delight “You boys are regular bears!”

“Glad you got through,” said their father.  “It looks like a heavy storm.”

“It does my heart good to see you again,” said Uncle Randolph.  “I trust you have profited by your stay at Brill.”  He was well educated himself, and thought knowledge the greatest thing in the world.

“Oh, we did profit, Uncle Randolph,” answered Tom with mischief chewing in his eyes.  “Dick and I helped to win the greatest football game you ever heard about.”

“Tom Rover!” remonstrated his aunt, while Aleck Pop doubled up with mirth and disappeared behind a convenient door.

“We brought home good reports,” said Sam.  “Dick stands second in the class and Tom stands fifth.  That’s not so bad in a class of twenty-two.”

“And Sam stands third,” put in Tom.

“That is splendid!” said Anderson Rover.  “I am proud of you!”

“And so am I proud,” added Randolph Rover.

“You’ll all be great men some time,” said their Aunt Martha.  “But come into the sitting-room and take off your things.  Supper will be ready in a little while.  But if you want a doughnut beforehand—­”

“Hurrah for Aunt Martha’s doughnuts!” cried Sam.  “I was thinking of them while riding in the train.”

“Well, you shall have all you wish during the holidays,” answered his aunt fondly.