Page:The complete poems of Emily Bronte.djvu/35

Rh room. . . We are all stout and hearty. . . A scheme is at present in agitation for setting us up in a school of our own; as yet nothing is determined, but I hope and trust it may go on and prosper and answer our highest expectations. This day four years I wonder whether we shall still be dragging on in our present condition, or established to our hearts' content. Time will show. I guess that at the time appointed for the opening of this paper we, i.e. Charlotte, Anne, and I, shall be all merrily seated in our own sitting-room in some pleasant and flourishing seminary, having just gathered in for the midsummer ladyday. Our debts will be paid off, and we shall have cash in hand to a considerable amount. . . And now I close, sending from far a exhortation of "Courage, boys! courage," to exiled and harassed Anne, wishing she was here.'

The next extract is dated Haworth, Thursay, 31st July 1845: 'My birthday—showery, breezy, cool. I am twenty-seven years old today. This morning Anne and I opened the papers we wrote four years since, on my twenty-third birthday. This paper we intend, if all be well, to open on my thirtieth—three years hence, in 1848.' She then summarises the