Indeed, he often told them that he believed they felt for him more than he did himself.
One day Eric brought him a little bunch of primroses and violets.

He seemed much better, and Eric's spirits were high with the thoughts and hopes of the coming holidays.

"There, Edwin," he said, as the boy gratefully and eagerly took the flowers, "don't they make you glad?
They are one of our _three_ signs, you know, of the approaching holidays.

One sign was the first sight of the summer steamer going across the bay; another was May eve, when these island-fellows light big gorse fires all over the mountains, and throw yellow marsh-lilies at their doors to keep off the fairies.

Do you remember, Eddy, gathering some last May eve, and sitting out in the playground till sunset, watching the fires begin to twinkle on Cronck-Irey and Barrule for miles away?
What a jolly talk we had that evening about the holidays; but my father and mother were here then, you know, and we were all going to Fairholm.