ircle. Guard, dear old Guard, will never accompany them
more in their wanderings. He sleeps his last long sleep in the breast of
the moor he loved so well. Yet he is with them in spirit and thought,
for he lies buried close beside 'the Castle,' and they feel he is near
them whenever they go there.

Easter is in their hearts, too, for Penelope is home for her holidays and
Angela has just returned from a much-dreaded duty visit to Aunt Julia,
and their joy at being together again is intense.

Penelope lies in her old attitude, flat on the moor, one cheek pressed
close to its breast, her eyes gazing in a perfect rapture of delight over
the length and breadth of it.

"I _almost_ think," she says softly, "it is worth going away to have the
joy of coming home again; to step out of that dear little station, and
then to turn the corner and see--this," waving her hand in a wide sweep.
"Oh, girls, shall you ever forget the first time we came, and how we
dreaded it, and how shy we were, and frightened--"

"Until we saw Cousin Charlotte," chimed in Esther. "I never felt
frightened after that."

"And do you remember," burst in Angela, "our dear little rooms, and how
lovely it all looked when we came that night, and dear old Guard,"--her
voice wavered and dropped--"came out to meet us, and Anna?"

"And I was so troubled about our clothes because we were so shabby, and--
but it never seemed to matter much. Cousin Charlotte made everything come
right. Isn't it wonderful, all that has happened just through mother's
writing to Cousin Charlotte, and Cousin Charlotte being able to take us!"

"Wonderful," said Penelope softly; and back to her mind as through a vague
dream came a vision of a child lying amidst the long coarse grass of an
untidy garden, with butterflies, yellow and white and brown, flitting
about over her head, while through her mind as she watched them passed
visions and dreams of the future, and vague wonderings as to what it would
bring.

"And this is what it has brought," she thought to herself. "I shall not
be afraid to take the next step now. God has been so good to us."

End of Project Gutenberg's The Carroll Girls, by Mabel Quiller-Couch

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CARROLL GIRLS ***

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