I’m going back to the Top of the World

“I’m going back to the Top of the World” is Edwin Fairley’s final declaration, reported by Jim Fairley to Emma Harte. Spoken just before Edwin dies, it gives his passing the language of a return and concludes Jim’s account of his grandfather’s remorse and last request for Emma’s forgiveness.

Deathbed recollection

Jim recounts the words while kneeling before Emma and asking her to forgive the Fairleys, especially Edwin. He explains that Edwin had asked him to seek forgiveness for the family’s past and to tell Emma that he had never stopped loving her. After becoming agitated over the request, Edwin eventually fell asleep. When he awoke, he seemed not to see Jim; he gazed out of the window for a long time, then lay back on the pillows. Jim recognized that he was slipping away. Edwin smiled, called Emma’s name, spoke the expression, and died peacefully in Jim’s arms.

Meaning and narrative role

The phrase turns the moment of death into an imagined return: Edwin does not describe himself as leaving, but as going back. The account does not specify what he understands the destination to be; its force comes from the words themselves and their placement at the end of his life. His smile gives the declaration a note of triumph and happiness, sharply contrasting with the remorse Jim has just described.

The expression also completes the scene of reconciliation without erasing the past. Edwin’s final appeal concerns the harm done to Emma, including his rejection of her in the rose garden. After hearing Jim’s account, Emma weeps for Edwin and reflects that he may have suffered more than she did. Jim then asks whether she forgives the Fairleys, making the final words part of a continuing exchange between Edwin’s remorse and Emma’s response.