Then, with a renewed feeling of thankfulness and happiness, every one sat down, and the bountiful dinner was served. Virginia sat between Aunt Nan and Mary, and opposite the Blackmore twins, whose father had come to spend the day with them. He was the jolliest man imaginable, “even though he is a minister,” as Jean Blackmore often said, and kept the entire table laughing over his jokes and funny stories. Virginia mentally compared him with the Rev. Samuel Baxter, and could not resist whispering to Aunt Nan: “Wouldn’t Dr. Baxter be shocked if he were here?” “I wish he were!” Aunt Nan whispered back. “Maybe he’d be so shocked he couldn’t get back to Webster!” They sat for a long time after dinner was over, talking with each other and enjoying the informal after-dinner speeches. As they left the dining-room, and passed into the big living-room to listen to some music, a large automobile stopped at the door, and a tall, white-haired gentleman in a gray overcoat stepped out and was about to ring the bell. But, before he had time, he was seized by a gray-eyed girl in a white dress, who had burst open the door, crying: “Oh, Colonel Standish! Have you really, really come to see me?” “Why, Miss Virginia,” said the Colonel, pausing to shake hands cordially with Aunt Nan, “I’ve been having Thanksgiving dinner with that grandson of mine at the Gordon school; and I told my man he must drive around this way to give me just a glimpse of you before taking me back to the city. And how goes everything, my dear? Is the ‘making of you’ progressing?” And he smiled in remembrance of their journey together. Virginia was so delighted to see him that she could hardly speak. “I think so, sir. Everything’s lovely anyway. Oh, Priscilla, come here!” “I wonder if you’re not the girl who knows my grandson?” the Colonel asked Priscilla. “He was telling me he knew a St. Helen’s girl at Vineyard Haven this summer named Priscilla Winthrop.” “Do you mean Carver Standish, sir? Why, of course, I know him. He taught me to swim this summer. I don’t know why I didn’t think of him when Virginia told me that your name was Colonel Standish,” said Priscilla to Virginia’s delight. To think Priscilla knew Colonel Standish’s grandson! Then the Winthrops must be introduced, and the Williamses and Anne and Dorothy, together with Miss King and Miss Wallace, until the Colonel declared that he felt quite at home. It seemed about a minute to Virginia before he said that he must go, in spite of entreaties and cordial invitations to share the festivities of the afternoon. But he should come again, he said, and the next time he would bring his grandson. Virginia watched the big car as it disappeared below the hill; and later, as they drove together in the early evening to the station, she told Aunt Nan that the Colonel’s coming had made her day complete.