And they said to him , those gay little ghosts of other days , `` We were the children of yesterday , Walter -- fight a good fight for the children of to-day and to-morrow . '' `` Where are you , Walter , '' cried Rilla , laughing a little . `` Come back -- come back . '' Walter came back with a long breath . He stood up and looked about him at the beautiful valley of moonlight , as if to impress on his mind and heart every charm it possessed -- the great dark plumes of the firs against the silvery sky , the stately White Lady , the old magic of the dancing brook , the faithful Tree Lovers , the beckoning , tricksy paths . `` I shall see it so in my dreams , '' he said , as he turned away . They went back to Ingleside . Mr. and Mrs. Meredith were there , with Gertrude Oliver , who had come from Lowbridge to say good-bye . Everybody was quite cheerful and bright , but nobody said much about the war being soon over , as they had said when Jem went away . They did not talk about the war at all -- and they thought of nothing else . At last they gathered around the piano and sang the grand old hymn : `` Oh God , our help in ages past Our hope for years to come . Our shelter from the stormy blast And our eternal home . '' `` We all come back to God in these days of soul-sifting , '' said Gertrude to John Meredith . `` There have been many days in the past when I did n't believe in God -- not as God -- only as the impersonal Great First Cause of the scientists . I believe in Him now -- I have to -- there 's nothing else to fall back on but God -- humbly , starkly , unconditionally . '' '' ` Our help in ages past ' -- ` the same yesterday , to-day and for ever , ' '' said the minister gently . `` When we forget God -- He remembers us . '' There was no crowd at the Glen Station the next morning to see Walter off . It was becoming a commonplace for a khaki clad boy to board that early morning train after his last leave . Besides his own , only the Manse folk were there , and Mary Vance .
Mary had sent her Miller off the week before , with a determined grin , and now considered herself entitled to give expert opinion XXXXX how such partings should be conducted .
Besides after around as at but for in of on