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186 pity, for he is really a good sort, and a friend of mine. I turned to go.

"They ought to have kept a thing like that for the midsummer bonfire," said I.

"Are you really going on?"

"Yes, I'm going on, Jojot."

"Well, you're an odd fish—you do hate to be like other people." And he whipped up his horse and drove off down the hill, while I stepped out bravely in the opposite direction as long as he was in sight; but as soon as I got round the corner, my knees seemed to give way under me, and I let myself fall like a lump by the roadside.

The next moments were among the worst that I have ever had to bear, and as there was nobody to see me, I just let myself go, and bewailed my misfortune.

"I have lost everything in the world," thought I. My home,—the house was full of dear memories,—and the hope of ever having another of my own; all my savings, which it took me years to get together, bit by bit, and which were so much the more valuable to me, and worst of all, my independence is gone; for now of course, I shall have to live with one of my children, and I don't know which of us will hate it the most. It is the one thing I have always been resolved against, as the