my delight. I did cry for very joy
as we toiled up the old sandy hill, and the great moors welcomed me
back. Then came the church, then the Vicarage, with the union-jack out
of my window, and the villagers were at their doors--and I was at home.
Oh, how the dear boys tore me to pieces!

There was no very special news, it seemed. Clement had been very good in
taking my class at school, and had established a cricket club. Jack had
positively found a new fungus, which would probably be named after him.
"Boy's luck," as we all said! Captain Abercrombie had been staying with
an old uncle at a place close by, only about twelve miles off. And he
was constantly driving over. "So very good-natured to the boys," Mr.
Arkwright said. And there was to be a school-children's tea on my
birthday.

My birthday has come and gone, and I am sixteen now. Dear old Eleanor
and I have gone back to our old ways. She had left my side of our room
untouched. It was in talking of our recent parting, and all that has
come and gone in our lives, that the fancy came upon us of writing our
biographies this winter.

And here, in the dear old kitchen, round which the wild wind howls like
music, with the dear boys dreaming at our feet, we bring them to an end.

* * * * *

This dusty relic of an old fad had been lying by for more than a year,
when I found it to-day, in emptying a box to send some books in to
Oxford, to Jack.

Eleanor should have had it, for we are parted, after all; but her
husband has more interest in hers, so we each keep our own.

She is married, to George Abercrombie, and I mean to paste the bit out
of the newspaper account of their wedding on to the end of this, as a
sort of last chapter. It would be as long as all the rest put together
if I were to write down all the ups and downs, and ins and outs, that
went before the marriage, and I suppose these things are always very
much alike.

I like him very much, and I am going to stay with them. The wedding was
very pretty. Jack threw shoes to such an extent, that when I went to
change my white ones I couldn't find a complete pair to put on. He says
he meant to pick them up again, but Prince, our new puppy, thought they
were thrown for him, and he never brought them back. Dear boy!

The old uncle helps George, who I believe is his heir, but at present he
sticks to the regiment. It seems so funny that Eleanor should now be
living there, and I here.