But I know one thing : this is going to be Camilla 's home . There 'll be no leaving it even when she does get well . She shall be my daughter , and I 'll love her next to Missy . '' Ted 's Afternoon Off Ted was up at five that morning , as usual . He always had to rise early to kindle the fire and go for the cows , but on this particular morning there was no `` had to '' about it . He had awakened at four o'clock and had sprung eagerly to the little garret window facing the east , to see what sort of a day was being born . Thrilling with excitement , he saw that it was going to be a glorious day . The sky was all rosy and golden and clear beyond the sharp-pointed , dark firs on Lee 's Hill . Out to the north the sea was shimmering and sparkling gaily , with little foam crests here and there ruffled up by the cool morning breeze . Oh , it would be a splendid day ! And he , Ted Melvin , was to have a half holiday for the first time since he had come to live in Brookdale four years ago -- a whole afternoon off to go to the Sunday School picnic at the beach beyond the big hotel . It almost seemed too good to be true ! The Jacksons , with whom he had lived ever since his mother had died , did not think holidays were necessities for boys . Hard work and cast-off clothes , and three grudgingly allowed months of school in the winter , made up Ted 's life year in and year out -- his outer life at least . He had an inner life of dreams , but nobody knew or suspected anything about that . To everybody in Brookdale he was simply Ted Melvin , a shy , odd-looking little fellow with big dreamy black eyes and a head of thick tangled curls which could never be made to look tidy and always annoyed Mrs. Jackson exceedingly . It was as yet too early to light the fire or go for the cows . Ted crept softly to a corner in the garret and took from the wall an old brown fiddle . It had been his father 's . He loved to play on it , and his few rare spare moments were always spent in the garret corner or the hayloft , with his precious fiddle .
It was his one link with the old life he had lived in a little cottage far away , with a mother who had loved him and a merry young father who had made wonderful music XXXXX the old brown violin .
Off as at from in of on since that to