“You have more spots at your place than I have,” he retorted between mouthfuls of mush. “And I didn’t cry when I took my medicine, and you did. And I wasn’t put to bed yesterday like you.” And with a flourish of his spoon, Roger placidly finished his supper, while the crestfallen Lydia slipped away to console herself with Lucy Locket, who never “answered back.”
“It is good for her, I suppose,” said Mrs. Blake, who, with Mr. Blake, was an amused spectator of this scene. “I am afraid we were making her selfish. It isn’t well for a child to grow up alone. And they love each other dearly. Roger follows Lydia about like her shadow.”
And so it was settled that Roger was to stay “forever” as he said.
“He’s stopped visiting!” cried the delighted Lydia, flying over to Friend Morris with the news. “He’s stopped visiting, and he’s going to be my brother. Isn’t it nice?”
Friend Morris nodded.
“He setteth the solitary in families, little Friend Lydia,” was her reply.
“Yes, Friend Morris,” answered Lydia politely, though she didn’t understand in the least what Friend Morris meant. “And I think we are all going home soon. Father’s ‘masterpiece’ is finished, and Miss Puss is so fat she can scarcely walk. It’s high time we went home, Mother says.”
But before the last day came, Mr. Blake planned a farewell ride, a ride back in the country to see the famous waterfalls that people traveled from far and wide to view.
Friend Morris was invited, and Deborah and Alexander, and all Robin Hill, too. So, early on a bright, crisp autumn afternoon they started, three carriage loads—in deference to Friend Morris, who did not like automobiles—full of happy, chattering children, and grown folks, happy, too, if in a quieter way.
Deborah drove one carriage, with Mrs. Blake, on the back seat, watching over the safety of her special little flock. Alexander carefully drove Friend Morris, who had the quietest, best-behaved children placed in her charge, reliable children like Mary Ellen and Tom, wise, spectacled John and stolid English Alfie. The more harum-scarum boys and girls rode with Miss Martin and Mr. Blake, who took good care that Gus was placed next Miss Martin, and that Sammy sat beside him on the front seat.