ll you all
we did, and what pretty things she showed us, and how delighted Racey
was with the _inside_ of her air-garden, it would take a whole other
book. For just fancy, we have counted over the lines and the pages I
have written, and there is actually enough to make a whole little book,
and just in _case_, you know, of its ever coming to be printed, it's
better for me to leave it the right size. And besides that, I don't know
that I have very much more to tell that would be interesting, for the
happy days that now began for us passed very much like each other in
many ways. Our new nurse came and she turned out very kind, and I think
she was more sensible than poor Pierson in some ways, for she managed
to get on better with Mrs. Partridge. But as for poor Mrs. Partridge,
she didn't trouble us much, for her rheumatism got so very bad that all
that winter she couldn't walk up-stairs though she managed to fiddle
about down-stairs in her own rooms and to keep on the housekeeping. And
this, by the by, brings me to the one big thing that happened, which you
will see all came from something that I told you about almost at the
beginning of this little story.

All through this winter, as you will have known without my telling you,
of course our happiness came mostly from Miss Goldy-hair. She didn't
often come to see us after Tom got better, but at least twice a week
_we_ went to see _her_. And what happy days those were! It was she that
helped us with everything--she held Racey's hand for him to write a
letter "his own self," to mother; she showed me how to make, oh! _such_
a pretty handkerchief-case to send mother for her birthday; and taught
Tom how to plait a lovely little mat with bright-coloured papers. She
helped me with my music, which I found very tiresome and difficult at
first, and she was so dear and good to us that when at last as we got to
understand things better, it had to be explained to us that not three
months but three _years_ must pass before we could hope to see papa and
mother again, it did not seem nearly so terrible as it would have done
but for having her. She put it such a nice way.

"You can learn so much in three years," she said. "Think how much you
can do to please your mother in that time." And it made us feel a new
interest in our lessons and in everything we had to learn.

Well, one day in the spring Uncle Geoff told me that he had a plan for
us he wanted to consult me about. He smiled a litt