Then I'd pinch myself to see if it was real--until suddenly I remembered that even supposing it was only a dream I'd better go on dreaming as long as I could; so I stopped pinching.

But it IS real and we're nearly home." With a sigh of rapture she relapsed into silence.

Matthew stirred uneasily.

He felt glad that it would be Marilla and not he who would have to tell this waif of the world that the home she longed for was not to be hers after all.

They drove over Lynde's Hollow, where it was already quite dark, but not so dark that Mrs.Rachel could not see them from her window vantage, and up the hill and into the long lane of Green Gables.