They fetched Mary Richardson away, and brought her up as a sister to their solitary son.

She was not so beloved as Jessie had been, but a good girl and a nice girl, four years older than John, and able to be a companion to him in his lessons and travels.

There was no sentimentality about his attachment to her, but a steady fraternal relationship, he, of course, being the little lord and master; but she was not without spirit, which enabled her to hold her own, and perseverance, which sometimes helped her to eclipse, for the moment, his brilliancy.

They learnt together, wrote their journals together, and shared alike with the scrupulous fairness which Mrs.Ruskin's sensible nature felt called on to show.

And so she remained his sister, and not quite his sister, until she married, and after a very short married life died.
Another accession to the family took place in the same year (1828); the Croydon aunt, too, had died, and left a dear dog, Dash, a brown and white spaniel, which at first refused to leave her coffin, but was coaxed away, and found a happy home at Herne Hill, and frequent celebration in his young master's verses.