This does not seem a long period of time to the grown-up or the aged, so at the end of it there was very little difference indeed in either Eppie or Eean; but Toddie had stretched up, as the good people of Methlin said. She was nearly ten—quite old she thought herself—and she had grown less round-faced, more delicate in features, very much longer in the hair, and had lost her pretty prattle, that is, she could talk better English. Oh, dear reader, I do assure you I would rather have had her always the wee, droll, lisping Toddie! but my heroine and my heroes will shoot up and grow in spite of me. There is Fred and Frank for instance, fourteen or fifteen years of age respectively, quite men almost. Well, so they thought anyhow. And, without complimenting them in any way, two sturdier, brisker, or bolder-looking lads you would hardly meet in a long day's march.
"What do you think, Fred," said Frank one day, "mamma wants me to be?"
"Couldn't guess," said Fred. "Not a minister."
"Fred, don't be foolish. I'm not good enough for that."
"I know you're not. I was only joking. Well, a lawyer; but then you're hardly bad enough for that."
"Just what I told dear mamma. She is so foolish you know. But I'm to be a barrister; so I suppose I'll have to enter some old mildewed office in London, with a red-faced, white-haired solicitor as my slave-driver, and never see the sun shining except through the cobwebs. Then I'll have to work my way to the bar; but oh, Fred, just imagine me with a flappy old black gown and a stiff white wig on! But I'm going to another good school first, and then to Oxford, so a lot of things may happen before I'm called to the bar. Oh, I hate the very idea!"
Toddie was feeding her blennies in the aquarium while this conversation went on, and the boys were lying on the floor of the cave near by.
What a happy three years that had been though! How many delightful sails they had had in the yacht, musical evenings in the poet's cave, and tea with stories to follow in the inside of their dear old Johnnie whale.
On this particular day, as soon as Toddie had fed her dolly-fish, they all went together to spend the afternoon in the igloo.
The little garden never looked more gay nor lovely, the cosy wee room had never looked brighter or cosier, and yet both Toddie and Fred were sad; for on the morrow Fred was going far away to Glasgow, to spend five months at a school previous to passing his examinations as a midshipman in the merchant service.