mon Grieve the butler,
who wore a black velvet coat and a big silver chain. Then there were
the maids, and the grooms, and the farm folk, who were all friends of
Randal's. He was not lonely, and he did not feel unhappy, even before
Jean came, as you shall be told. But the grown-up people were sad and
silent at Fairnilee. Randal had no father; his mother, Lady Ker, was
a widow. She was still quite young, and Randal thought her the most
beautiful person in the world. Children think these things about their
mothers, and Randal had seen no ladies but his mother only. She had
brown hair and brown eyes and red lips, and a grave kind face, which
looked serious under her great white widow's cap with the black hood
over it. Randal never saw his mother cry; but when he was a very little
child indeed, he had heard her crying in the night: this was after his
father went away.

[Illustration: Chapter Two]

CHAPTER II.--_How Randal's Father Came Home_

RANDAL remembered his father's going to fight the English, and how he
came back again. It was a windy August evening when he went away: the
rain had fallen since morning. Randal had watched the white mists
driven by the gale down through the black pine-wood that covers the hill
opposite Fairnilee. The mist looked like armies of ghosts, he thought,
marching, marching through the pines, with their white flags flying and
streaming. Then the sun came out red at evening, and Randal's father
rode away with all his men. He had a helmet on his head, and a great axe
hanging from his neck by a chain, and a spear in his hand. He was riding
his big horse, _Sir Hugh_, and he caught Randal up to the saddle and
kissed him many times before he clattered out of the courtyard. All the
tenants and men about the farm rode with him, all with spears and a flag
embroidered with a crest in gold. His mother watched them from the tower
till they were out of sight. And Randal saw them ride away, not on
hard, smooth roads like ours, but along a green grassy track, the water
splashing up to their stirrups where they crossed the marshes.

[Illustration: Page 240]

Then the sky turned as red as blood, in the sunset, and next it grew
brown, like the rust on a sword; and the Tweed below, when they rode the
ford, was all red and gold and brown.

Then time went on; that seemed a long time to Randal. Only the women
were left in the house, and Randal played with the shepherd's children.
They sailed boats in t