both by J.Y.  Akerman, F.S.A.  She gleaned her practical knowledge of life in a windmill, and a “Miller’s Thumb,” from an old man who used to visit her hut in the South Camp, Aldershot, having fallen from being a Miller with a genuine Thumb, to the less exalted position of hawking muffins in winter and “Sally Lunns” in summer!  Mrs. Allingham illustrated the story; two of her best designs were Jan and his Nurse Boy sitting on the plain watching the crows fly, and Jan’s first effort at drawing on his slate.  It was published as a book in 1876, and dedicated to our eldest sister, and the title was then altered to “Jan of the Windmill, a Story of the Plains.”

[Footnote 21:  Letter, August 25, 1872.]

Three poems of Julie’s came out in the volume of Aunt Judy’s Magazine for 1873, “The Willow Man,” “Ran away to Sea,” and “A Friend in the Garden”; her name was not given to the last, but it is a pleasant little rhyme about a toad.  She also wrote during this year “Among the Merrows,” a fantastic account of a visit she paid to the Aquarium at the Crystal Palace.

In October 1873, our Mother died, and my sister contributed a short memoir of her[22] to the November number of Aunt Judy’s Magazine.  To the December number she gave “Madam Liberality.”

[Footnote 22:  Included in “Parables from Nature.”  By Mrs. Alfred Gatty.  Complete edition.  Bell and Sons.]

For two years after Mother’s death, Julie shared the work of editing the Magazine with me, and then she gave it up, as we were not living together, and so found the plan rather inconvenient; also the task of reading MSS. and writing business letters wasted time which she could spend better on her own stories.

At the end of the year 1873, she brought out a book, “Lob Lie-by-the-Fire, and other Tales,” consisting of five stories, three of which—­“Timothy’s Shoes,” “Benjy in Beastland,” and “The Peace Egg,”—­had already been published in Aunt Judy’s Magazine, whilst “Old Father Christmas” had appeared in Little Folks; but the first tale of “Lob” was specially written for the volume.[23]

[Footnote 23:  Letter, August 10, 1873.]

The character of McAlister in this story is a Scotchman of the Scotch, and, chiefly in consequence of this fact, the book was dedicated to James Boyn McCombie, an uncle of Major Ewing, who always showed a most kind and helpful interest in my sister’s literary work.

He died a few weeks before she did, much to her sorrow, but the Dedication remained when the story came out in a separate form, illustrated by Mr. Caldecott.  The incident which makes the tale specially appropriate to be dedicated to so true and unobtrusive a philanthropist as Mr. McCombie was known to be, is the Highlander’s burning anxiety to rescue John Broom from his vagrant career.