The Long Vacation

ng of my l

when a boy

-room after dinner, she was almost as much dismayed as pleased

erson," she said,

he said in smiling excuse, holding out a hand in greet

r, when there was a double cry of greeting, not only of the slender, bright-eyed, still youthful-lo

come but that I thought

iment, Gertrude, when I

," said Gertrude. "Here, chi

," said Geraldine, h

Marilda f

lement. "It is a treat to lo

ss of hair, and with a look of weary, placid enjoyment as he listened to the talk of the other two; Lance with bright, sweet animation and cheeriness, still young-looking, though his hair too was scantier and his musical tones subdued; and Geraldine, pensive in eye and lip, but often sparkling up with f

xultation, "we are actually going ba

sound of satisfac

miss?" ask

the flitting. I ought to be at head-quarters, and besides there are the Sundays.

e not put his small family i

s more exacting, and the printing Will Har

ace? We could squ

ntist had a swell hall-door and staircase, which we absorb, so we shall not eat in the

ver left off dreaming of the dear old step springing up th

olly old days!" retur

ded Clement, i

ale Leston?" a

l home was in the rough and the smooth, the contrivances, the achievements, the exultation at each step on the ladde

You should see Master Felix's face at the least hope of a

e with the Lambs?"

rection, and have got a spick-and-span chess-

more children

-which is all that appears of the great Achilles' unlucky name-is articled

youth when he was improving h

r sub-editor and reporter than I was at his age, with his French wit and cleverness. The only fault I f

n assistant, who was our

get on without him since we

ns get realized!

ail work, or has she not higher

, not good old Lamb's; whereas Felix always made a point of noticing them. Gus was nine years old that last time h

not altered the ol

g-room for the young men, and what do you think I've got? We (not Froggatt, Underwood, and Lamb, but th

Oh! is Edgar's Great

im out. But what do you think I've got? The old cupboard

d all the children to adore it, and showed us, just like a weather record, where every one shot u

it sounds comfort

ar old Mrs. Froggatt died," said Gertrude, "and he is an animal that needs to

ter, resulting in about ￡4000 apiece; besides which the firm had gone on prospering. Clement

roggatt have said

said Lance, "the li

the writing with a con

so as to hinder the conscience from b

ontributors as the Harewoods, and suc

open, and a black silk perso

Wherever is the boy gone, wh

kissing the cheery, withered-apple cheeks of the ol

as your doing. You alw

all by himself, before ever I was in th

Clement, rather piteously, "to hear Lance si

Sibby, "as it's fainting ye'll be, an

hen, after exacting a promise that Master Lance should only sing once, she

t once be, Clem

kindly

e inquired, glancing to

as he does," she

sion than it had been at twenty, and never had the poem, connected with all the crises of the

l the weight so prone and feeble, that Gerald's support on the other side was welcome.

egan to smile as soon

r see Bexley

," and both indulg

ns it with pious

. "If I went in for sentiment, which I don't, it would be for Fiddler's Ranch; though i

ncle L

, mitigated by a common church organ, is as remarkable as absurd; though he see

t Cherry has always said that self-abnegat

nous etions si miserables," said Gerald, in his low,

es

when everythi

o thos

r to lose the sen

s if you were twenty year

, and that I left my yo

ething so yearning and melancholy that Anna was not sorry when

f prosperity and the creature of modern life, with more aspirations than h