We were faring forth on a long road ; and , though we had some idea what would be at the end of it , there was enough glamour of the unknown about it to lend a wonderful charm to our speculations concerning it . We were delighted at the thought of seeing father 's old home , and living among the haunts of his boyhood . He had talked so much to us about it , and described its scenes so often and so minutely , that he had inspired us with some of his own deep-seated affection for it -- an affection that had never waned in all his years of exile . We had a vague feeling that we , somehow , belonged there , in that cradle of our family , though we had never seen it . We had always looked forward eagerly to the promised day when father would take us `` down home , '' to the old house with the spruces behind it and the famous `` King orchard '' before it -- when we might ramble in `` Uncle Stephen 's Walk , '' drink from the deep well with the Chinese roof over it , stand on `` the Pulpit Stone , '' and eat apples from our `` birthday trees . '' The time had come sooner than we had dared to hope ; but father could not take us after all . His firm asked him to go to Rio de Janeiro that spring to take charge of their new branch there . It was too good a chance to lose , for father was a poor man and it meant promotion and increase of salary ; but it also meant the temporary breaking up of our home . Our mother had died before either of us was old enough to remember her ; father could not take us to Rio de Janeiro . In the end he decided to send us to Uncle Alec and Aunt Janet down on the homestead ; and our housekeeper , who belonged to the Island and was now returning to it , took charge of us on the journey . I fear she had an anxious trip of it , poor woman ! She was constantly in a quite justifiable terror lest we should be lost or killed ; she must have felt great relief when she reached Charlottetown and handed us over to the keeping of Uncle Alec . Indeed , she said as much . `` The fat one is n't so bad . He is n't so quick to move and get out of your sight while you 're winking as the thin one . But the only safe way to travel with those young ones would be to have 'em both tied to you with a short rope -- a MIGHTY short rope . '' `` The fat one '' was Felix , who was very sensitive about his plumpness . He was always taking exercises to make him thin , with the dismal result that he became fatter all the time . He vowed that he did n't care ; but he DID care terribly , and he glowered at Mrs. MacLaren in a most undutiful fashion . He had never liked her since the day she had told him he would soon be as broad as he was long .
For my own part , I was rather sorry XXXXX see her going ; and she cried over us and wished us well ; but we had forgotten all about her by the time we reached the open country , driving along , one on either side of Uncle Alec , whom we loved from the moment we saw him .
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