“The changed and the unchanged, how they blend and mingle. We are here again, we three, in these old houses, by this wan water; scarcely a tree has fallen, scarcely an acre of those far-spreading banks has been altered, since we were here in our youth, and in our youth our most cherished fancy was to return and meet thus again. Thus, nay, not thus; other dreams were in each heart of us. We thought of others joining us here, in the time of which we smiled to speak, when we should be old. We thought of prosperous lives, of names grown famous, of households and of heirs; but one by one, the old hopes have gone down to the grave of such, and only the oldest of all survives. We are here, we are together, but not as we dreamed. “Solitary, aged people, alone but not sad; for now we speak of One, of whom then we spoke not ever, of Him who has been with us through all this length of way, the One known when all were strangers, the One present when all forsook us. We speak of Him in His tenderness so near to us, a man touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and we speak of Him in awe and love, as God over all, blessed for ever. A little time and we shall enter His presence, hopeful to be like Him, seeing Him as He is; and while we remain in this fair earthly country, we speak of the heavenly which is to come. Another country--perhaps indeed this familiar world with its change and fiery ordeal past; and again I say I love to think it will be so. I love to anticipate the time when I may watch and wait _yonder_ for that sublime morning which shall restore to me my human frame, my human dwelling-place; and when I look upon this water, my faithful, long companion, I think I see it flowing on under the sunshine of a grand and holy prime, for which these ages of tumult and anguish and misery have but ripened and prepared this world. “And while we remain here, human gladnesses abound about us, and hold us fast in their silken chains. We are much together; we live abroad under the free heaven, my brother Hew and I, and in the evening we call out Lucy to see the sun go down. “Bravely going down in light and hope to the other world which waits for him; and thus we travel in peace and happily, on towards the west which comes nearer every day--on to the setting sun!” THE END. JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS. Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber: simplicity, philosphers=> simplicity, philosophers {pg 9} many distinctions as as=> many distinctions as {pg 71} mighty precints=> mighty precincts {pg 95} Helen--Miss Buchanau=> Helen--Miss Buchanan {pg 103} more graceml=> more graceful {pg 181} as Saunders call them=> as Saunders calls them {pg 203} after an inval=> after an interval {pg 253} in was a new hysteric=> it was a new hysteric {pg 269} an outer and in inner=> an outer and an inner {pg 284} Lucy Murray bowed ber head=> Lucy Murray bowed her head {pg 301} in some suprise=> in some surprise {pg 318}