being that we were so happy to get
back to the dear old spot, and the dearer old people, that we could not
help feeling that all the objects, inanimate as well as animate, on
which our eyes rested were equally delighted to see us. Yes, I am
certain of it. The yellow sand looked cleaner and yellower; the sun
shone, and the wide ocean glittered more brightly; and the blue sky
looked bluer, with the bold cliffs standing up into it; and the gulls'
wings whiter, as they darted through the glowing atmosphere, than we had
ever seen them before. At all events, there were certain animate
objects who were delighted to see us, or we must have been very bad
decipherers of the human countenance. There stood Uncle Boz, Aunt
Deborah, and Bambo, and another personage who presented a very great
contrast in personal appearance to any one of the three. Not from being
very tall, or very thin, or very grave, or very sour-looking, or very
white, or very ugly. The personage in question had none of these
peculiarities. Who said that Uncle Boz was ugly? He wasn't! nor was
Aunt Deborah, nor was Bambo. They were all beautiful in their way; at
least, I thought so then, and do now. Well, but about this personage.
There was a pair of large blue eyes--the sky wasn't bluer, nor the sea
more sparkling when they laughed; and there was a face round them very
fair, with a delicate colour on the cheeks and lips. I should like to
see the coral which could surpass them, polished ever so much. There
was hair in ringlets, adorning the face; not flaxen exactly, though
light with a tinge from the sun, or from something which gave it a
bright glow. This head belonged to a little girl--very little, and
fairy-like, and beautiful. A different sort of beauty to Bambo's or
Uncle Boz's, or even to Aunt Deborah's. I don't indeed think that Aunt
Deb ever could have been like Katty Brand, even in her childhood's days,
or if she had, she was very considerably altered since then. The blue
eyes opened wider than ever with astonishment, and the lips parted, as,
jumping out of the carriage, we were kissed by Aunt Deb, and had our
hands wrung in the cordial grasp, first of Uncle Boz, and then of jolly
old Bambo. It was evidently a matter of consideration in that little
head of Katty's how she should receive us. We settled the point by each
of us giving her some hearty kisses, which I don't think offended her
much, though she did wipe her cheeks after the operat