ip too swayed a little uncertainly and stood a moment
with his hand to his head. The children gazed about them bewildered and
still a little giddy. The room was gone, the model of the Grange was
gone. Over their heads was blue sky, under their feet was green grass,
and in front stood the Grange itself, with its front door wide open and
on the steps Helen and Mr. Peter Graham.

That telegram had brought them home.

. . . . . . .

You will wonder how Lucy explained where she had been when she was lost.
She never did explain. There are some things, as you know, that cannot
be explained. But the curious thing is that no one ever asked for an
explanation. The grown-ups must have thought they knew all about it,
which, of course, was very far from being the truth.

When the four people on the doorstep of the Grange had finished saying
how glad they were to see each other--that day on the steps when Philip
and Lucy came back from Polistarchia, Helen and Mr. Peter Graham came
back from Belgium--Helen said:

'And we've brought you each the loveliest present. Fetch them, Peter,
there's a dear.'

Mr. Peter Graham went to the stable-yard and came back followed by two
long tan dachshunds, who rushed up to the children frisking and fawning
in a way they well knew.

'Why Max! why Brenda!' cried Philip. 'Oh, Helen! are they for us?'

'Yes, dear, of course they are,' said Helen; 'but how did you know their
names?'

That was one of the things which Philip could not tell, then.

But he told Helen the whole story later, and she said it was wonderful,
and how clever of him to make all that up, and that when he was a man he
would be able to be an author and to write books.

'And do you know,' she said, 'I _did_ dream about the island--quite a
long dream, only when I woke up I could only remember that I'd been
there and seen you. But no doubt I dreamed about Mr. Noah and all the
rest of it as well, only I forgot it.'

. . . . . . .

And Max and Brenda of course loved every one. Their characters were
quite unchanged. Only the children had forgotten the language of
animals, so that conversation between them and the dogs was for ever
impossible. But Max and Brenda understand every word you say--any one
can see that.

. . . . . . .

You want to know what became of the redheaded, steely-eyed nurse, the
Pre