f Emily and Anne. This
chapter would have been more interesting if only one possessed _Solala
Vernon's Life_ by Anne Bronte, or the _Gondaland Chronicles_ by Emily!

[Picture: Facsimile of page of Emily Bronte's Diary]

_A PAPER to be opened_
_when Anne is_
25 _years old_,
_or my next birthday after_
_if_
_all be well_.

_Emily Jane Bronte_. _July the_ 30_th_, 1841.

_It is Friday evening_, _near 9 o'clock_--_wild rainy weather_. _I
am seated in the dining-room_, _having just concluded tidying our
desk boxes_, _writing this document_. _Papa is in the
parlour_--_aunt upstairs in her room_. _She has been reading
Blackwood's Magazine to papa_. _Victoria and Adelaide are ensconced
in the peat-house_. _Keeper is in the kitchen_--_Hero in his cage_.
_We are all stout and hearty_, _as I hope is the case with
Charlotte_, _Branwell_, _and Anne_, _of whom the first is at John
White_, _Esq._, _Upperwood House_, _Rawdon_; _the second is at
Luddenden Foot_; _and the third is_, _I believe_, _at Scarborough_,
_enditing perhaps a paper corresponding to this_.

_A scheme is at present in agitation for setting us up in a school of
our own_; _as yet nothing is determined_, _but I hope and trust it
may go on and prosper and answer our highest expectations_. _This
day four years I wonder whether we shall still be dragging on in our
present condition or established to our hearts' content_. _Time will
show_.

_I guess that at the time appointed for the opening of this paper
we_, i.e. _Charlotte_, _Anne_, _and I_, _shall be all merrily seated
in our own sitting-room in some pleasant and flourishing seminary_,
_having just gathered in for the midsummer ladyday_. _Our debts will
be paid off_, _and we shall have cash in hand to a considerable
amount_. _Papa_, _aunt_, _and Branwell will either_ _have been or be
coming to visit us_. _It will be a fine warm_, _summer evening_,
_very different from this bleak look-out_, _and Anne and I will
perchance slip out into the garden for a few minutes to peruse our
papers_. _I hope either this or something better will be the case_.

_The_ Gondaliand _are at present in a threatening