Few boys were about the play-ground, so they got unnoticed to Roslyn, and Dr.Underhay, who had been summoned, was instantly in attendance.

He looked at Vernon for a moment, and then shook his head in a way that could not be mistaken.
Eric saw it, and flung himself with uncontrollable agony on his brother's corpse.

"O Vernon, Vernon, my own dear brother! oh God, then he is dead." And, unable to endure the blow, he fainted away.
I cannot dwell on the miserable days that followed, when the very sun in heaven seemed dark to poor Eric's wounded and crushed spirit.

He hardly knew how they went by.

And when they buried Vernon in the little green churchyard by Russell's side, and the patter of the earth upon the coffin--that most terrible of all sounds--struck his ear, the iron entered into his soul, and he had but one wish as he turned away from the open grave, and that was, soon to lie beside his beloved little brother and to be at rest..