had once lived. Speaking of this house, Major Ewing said:--On the
evening of our arrival at Fredericton, New Brunswick, which stands on
the river St. John, we strolled down, out of the principal street, and
wandered on the river shore. We stopped to rest opposite to a large
old house, then in the hands of workmen. There was only the road
between this house and the river, and, on the banks, one or two old
willows. We said we should like to make our first home in some such
spot. Ere many weeks were over, we were established in that very
house, where we spent the first year, or more, of our time in
Fredericton. We _called_ it "Reka Dom," the River House.

[Footnote 12: Letter, February 3, 1868.]

[Illustration: THE RIVER HOUSE.
VIEW FROM THE WINDOW OF REKA DOM.]

For the descriptions of Father and Mother Albatross and their island
home, in the last and most beautiful tale of "Kerguelen's Land," she
was indebted to her husband, a wide traveller and very accurate
observer of nature.

To the volume of _Aunt Judy's Magazine_ for 1869 she only sent "The
Land of Lost Toys,"[13] a short but very brilliant domestic story, the
wood described in it being the "Upper Shroggs," near Ecclesfield,
which had been a very favourite haunt in her childhood. In October
1869, she and Major Ewing returned to England, and from this time
until May 1877, he was stationed at Aldershot.

[Footnote 13: Letter, December 8, 1868.]