stared for a few
seconds, and passed slowly on with its head down, as if saddened by the
sight of such a melancholy spectacle.

There were upwards of a hundred animals in the drove; the prolonged and
maddening agony which Jacky endured may therefore be conceived but
cannot be described.

Last of all came the drover, a kilted, plaided, and bonneted Highlander,
quite as shaggy as the roughest of his cattle, and rather fiercer in
aspect. He was not so in reality however, for, on coming to the place
where the poor boy sat, he stopped and stared as his predecessors had
done.

"Fat is she doin' there?" said he.

Jacky paused, and gazed for one moment in mute surprise, then resumed
his roar with shut eyes and with tenfold vigour.

As it was evident that any farther attempt at conversation must prove
fruitless, the drover took Jacky in his arms, carried him to the
extremity of the pass, set him down, and, pointing to the white house in
the blue distance, said--

"Yonder's ta hoose; let her see how she can rin."

Jacky fixed his eyes on the house with the stare of one who regarded it
as his last and only refuge, and ran as he had never done before,
roaring while he ran.

"She's a clever callant," observed the drover with a grim smile, as he
turned to follow his cattle.

Meanwhile the Sudberry Family reached the White House in the midst of
increasing rain and mists and muttering thunder. Of course Jacky's
absence was at once discovered. Of course the females screamed and the
males shouted, while they turned the mail-coach entirely inside out in a
vain search for the lost one. The din was increased by nine shepherd
dogs, which rushed down the mountain-side, barking furiously with
delight, (probably), and with excitement, (certainly), at the unwonted
sight of so many strangers in that remote glen. Presently the coach was
turned round, and the distracted father galloped back towards the pass.
Of course he almost ran over his youngest son in less than five minutes!
Five minutes more placed the recovered child in its mother's arms.
Then followed a scene of kissing, crying, laughing, barking, and
excitement, which is utterly indescribable, accompanied by thunder,
lightning, and rain, in the midst of which tempestuous mental and
elemental commotion, the Sudberry Family took possession of their
Highland home.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER 3.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

Next morning the Sudberrys were awakened to a sense of the p