Bookcover
“Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in their mouths”
“Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers intheir mouths”
Milly And Olly
New Revised Edition
by
Mrs. Humphry Ward
Illustrated by
Ruth M. Hallock
Garden City New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1914
Dedication
To F.A., In thename of the children of Fox how, this revival of a child’sstory written twenty-seven years ago, under the spell of Rotha andFairfield, is inscribed by the writer.
Preface
After many years this little book is once more to see the light.The children for whom it was written are long since grown up. Butperhaps the pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by someof the Millys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain countrywhich it describes, the becks are still sparkling;“Brownholme” still spreads its green steeps and fernyhollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout still leap in its tinystreams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, still girdles the deepvalley where these children played: the valley of Wordsworth andArnold—the valley where Arnold’s poet-son rambled as aboy—where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of CharlotteBrontë still haunts the open door-way of Fox How—wherepoetry and generous life and ranging thought still dwell, and bringtheir benediction to the passers-by. “Aunt Emma” in herbeautiful home, unchanged but for its vacant chairs, is now as sheever was, the friend of old and young; and the children of to-daystill press to her side as their elders did before them. The parrotalas! is gone where parrots may; but amid the voices that breathearound Fox How—the voices of seventy years—his mimicspeech is still remembered by the children who teased and lovedhim. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things small andgreat; and in those who have once felt it, the love of theFairfield valley, of the gray stone house that fronts the fells,and of them that dwell therein, is “not Time’sfool—”
“Or bends with the remover toremove.”
Mary A. Ward.
September 18, 1907.
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER
  1. Making Plans
  2. A Journey North
  3. Ravensnest
  4. Out on the Hills
  5. Aunt Emma’s Picnic
  6. Wet Days at Ravensnest
  7. A Story-telling Game
  8. The Story of Beowulf
  9. Milly’s Birthday
  10. Last Days at Ravensnest
 ILLUSTRATIONS