Everyone stopped talking and stared. Aunt Carol looked up at the stranger and smiled. Mary was the only one to see this quick look, and suddenly she jumped on to the bench, flung back her curls, and shouted:

"Don't you see who it is, you sillies? It's Uncle Micah with his beard off!"

"Gosh!" Dickie whispered, "we're right again, twin. He's been disguised all the time. Now he's not Uncle Beaver any more."

There was an awkward silence until Mr. Sterling laughed a little nervously and called to Aunt Carol.

"Do you recognise your husband, Caroline?... It feels mighty strange and cold without it." Then he looked down the long table until his eyes rested on Mary, still standing, flushed and excited, on the bench. He beckoned to her. "I have something for you, my child."

Mary jumped to the floor and walked over to him. She stood with her hands behind her back, while the light from the lanterns above the table glowed on her curls, and looked up at him fearlessly. She had never been frightened of him. There was a pause while Dickie strolled over to her side, and then Mr. Sterling stooped and lifted her until she was standing on the table. Then he addressed the company.

"Yesterday this child brought me my heart's desire. Tell me now, Mary, what is your heart's desire?"

She looked puzzled for a moment and glanced down at Dickie and then round at all the faces staring at her. Then she announced promptly:

"For Mummy to be here - and Daddy, too, home from the war to have fun with us here."

Uncle Micah threw back his head and laughed a great laugh. "I knew it!... Richard, open the doors."

And almost before Dickie had pushed them right back, Mary had jumped from the table, dashed out of the barn and flung herself at a tall man in Air Force uniform who was standing smiling in the drizzle. Then David ran out, too. Both his father and mother were there, and Peter followed him as she saw her own Daddy standing quietly in the background.

Then there was pandemonium as places were found for the new-comers at the feast and as more plates were fetched. Mrs. Morton found time to give Peter a hug and Tom a smile and a handshake before introducing them to her husband. Then the twins dragged her over to the rather shy and bewildered Jenny so that she didn't feel left out, while Peter's father continued to shake the hand of his nephew Charles.