The Project Gutenberg EBook of Milly and Olly, by Mrs. Humphry Ward

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Title: Milly and Olly

Author: Mrs. Humphry Ward

Release Date: August 31, 2004 [EBook #13337]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in
their mouths"]

MILLY AND OLLY

New Revised Edition

BY

MRS. HUMPHRY WARD

Illustrated by RUTH M. HALLOCK

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1914

DEDICATION

TO F.A., IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN OF FOX HOW, THIS REVIVAL OF A
CHILD'S STORY WRITTEN TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, UNDER THE SPELL OF ROTHA
AND FAIRFIELD, IS INSCRIBED BY THE WRITER.

PREFACE

After many years this little book is once more to see the light. The
children for whom it was written are long since grown up. But perhaps
the pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by some of the
Millys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain country which it
describes, the becks are still sparkling; "Brownholme" still spreads its
green steeps and ferny hollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout still
leap in its tiny streams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, still
girdles the deep valley where these children played: the valley of
Wordsworth and Arnold--the valley where Arnold's poet-son rambled as a
boy--where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of Charlotte Bronte
still haunts the open door-way of Fox How--where poetry and generous
life and ranging thought still dwell, and bring their benediction to the
passers-by. "Aunt Emma" in her beautiful home, unchanged but for its
vacant chairs, is now as she ever was, the friend of old and young; and
the children of to-day still press to her side as their elders did
before them. The parrot alas! is gone where parrots may; but amid the
voices that breathe around Fox How--the voices of seventy years--his
mimic speech is still remembered by the children who teased and loved
him. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things sma