So the four little Blossoms and Jud went to pay their respects to all the dear farm animals the children had known that first summer they spent on Brookside Farm.  Carlotta, the calf given to Meg and Bobby, had grown to be a beautiful sleek cow and Meg privately decided she was prettier than any Aunt Polly owned.  Jerry and Terry, the two farm horses, acted as though they remembered the small visitors; and as for Mrs. Sally Sweet, Aunt Polly’s pet Jersey cow, she came right up to the bars and fairly begged to have her nose stroked.

“Mother will want to see you,” said Jud, when they had made the rounds of the barns and poultry yards.

Jud was “as nice as ever,” Meg said, and the winter he had spent at an agricultural college had given him more confidence in his own ability.  He was as determined as ever, the children found, to be a farmer and a good one.

At Mrs. Peter’s neat front door they found Mr. Tom Sparks, a man who sold and bought cattle and who had given Carlotta to Meg and Bobby.  He was surprised and delighted to see the four children again and said it was just his usual good luck that had made him drive in that morning; he was going off the next morning on a two weeks’ trip to buy cows.

“I’d almost like to live here,” confided Dot to Twaddles as they went in to breakfast.

CHAPTER IX

ON THE WAY AGAIN

Early the next morning Father Blossom brought the car around and, amid much hugging and kissing and a few tears, the good-bys were said.  The Blossoms promised that if Aunt Polly and Linda and Jud did not get to see them while they were on Apple Tree Island, they would surely stop at Brookside Farm on their way home.

“I wonder how Mr. Harley feels now?” said Meg suddenly, when, the farm far behind, they were riding swiftly toward Sunset Lake.  “I haven’t thought about him all the time we were playing; have you, Dot?”

“No, I haven’t,” admitted Dot.  “But I’m sorry for him, just the same.  Do you suppose he has found Mrs. Harley?”

“I’m afraid not,” answered Father Blossom.

“We will see him to-day, though, and give him what little news Aunt Polly could tell us of his wife.  I am going to Greenpier, the little town where Chris Smith has his boats.  I rather think Mr. Harley will bunk right there with him.  Chris is a bachelor and will probably be glad to have some one live with him.”

Sunset Lake was twenty miles from Aunt Polly’s farm, and the Blossoms arrived there before noon.  There was no trouble in finding Chris Smith’s boathouse, for Greenpier was a very small, shabby town and the large sign “Boats for Hire” was easily the most conspicuous thing in the place.

“Howdy!” Mr. Harley greeted them, shuffling over the road from the wharf as Father Blossom honked the horn and brought the car to a stop.  “I’m just back from a trip to the island.  Did you see your sister, Ma’am?”