CHAPTER XXVI
HARD TO MEND
THE day seemed curiously empty.
"Even when Fogger's busy writing, or something," said Garth, disconsolately, "you know he's there."
"We felt very much the same," Elspeth said, "when Garth went to town with you, Joan. This is a selfish family. It can never bear to have one of its members away for very long."
"What will you do when he is in the Navy and is away all the time?" Joan asked.
"I'm trying not to think about that very much," Elspeth said.
They had not even enough ambition to go swimming.
"I can't, anyway," Garth said, "unless Fogger's there. I'll watch you."
But Joan and Elspeth decided that it was not worth while, and the hours slipped on uneventfully. While Joan read aloud to Elspeth in the
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