`` Walk right in and make yourself at home in your own room , do ! We all met in the hall , and knocked and knocked . Finally Miss Monroe came , so we made bold to walk right in . Where is the only and original fruit cake , Ida ? My mouth has been watering all day . '' `` The other Ida Mitchell is probably entertaining her friends at this moment with my fruit cake , '' said Ida , with a little laugh . Then she told the whole story . `` I 'm so sorry to disappoint you , '' she concluded , `` but I simply could n't tell that poor , lonely child that the cake was n't intended for her . I 've brought all the goodies home with me that I could buy , and we 'll have to do the best we can without the fruit cake . '' Their `` best '' proved to be a very good thing . They had a jolly New Year 's Eve , and Miss Monroe sparkled and entertained most brilliantly . They kept their celebration up until twelve to welcome the new year in , and then they bade Ida good night . But Miss Monroe lingered for a moment behind the others to say softly : `` I want to tell you how good and sweet I think it was of you to give up your cake to the other Ida . That little bit of unselfishness was a good guerdon for your new year . '' And Ida , radiant-faced at this praise from her idol , answered heartily : `` I 'm afraid I 'm anything but unselfish , Miss Monroe . But I mean to try to be more this coming year and think a little about the girls outside of my own little set who may be lonely or discouraged . The other Ida Mitchell is n't going to have to depend on that fruit cake alone for comfort and encouragement for the next twelve months . '' In the Old Valley The man halted on the crest of the hill and looked sombrely down into the long valley below . It was evening , and although the hills around him were still in the light the valley was already filled with kindly , placid shadows . A wind that blew across it from the misty blue sea beyond was making wild music in the rugged firs above his head as he stood in an angle of the weather-grey longer fence , knee-deep in bracken .
It had been by these firs he had halted twenty years ago , turning XXXXX one last glance at the valley below , the home valley which he had never seen since .
although as at below for from so to with without