en. It had been dropped
on the knoll when the accident happened, and Jean now bounded off
gleefully in search of it.

A doctor had been sent for soon after the accident, but Geordie seemed
so well that old Gowrie already began to regret that they had been in
such haste in sending to fetch him. Presently Mistress Gowrie left the
knolls and returned to her usual evening duties, which she felt were put
sadly in arrear owing to this outbreak of Blackie's, and feeling truly
thankful that it had ended so fortunately. She invited old Granny Baxter
to have a cup of tea with her at the farm, which was a very great mark
of graciousness on the part of "the mistress," and extremely gratifying
to the old woman, to whom attentions of the kind came rarely.

It had been arranged, also, by the farmer's wife that Geordie should be
moved into the "best bedroom" before the doctor came, and Granny
Baxter was filled with pride when she was shown the woodruff-scented
chamber, with its dark shining floor, and among other impressive
decorations from the farmyard, a waving canopy of peacock feathers above
the ancient chimney-piece, where Geordie was to sleep among snowy sheets
that night. But each time that they proposed he should be carried there
from his rough bed among the heather, Geordie pled rather wistfully,
"Just wait a wee while. I'm right comfortable here among the heather,"
and once he added with a sad smile as he glanced at the farmer's wife,
"But I'll no be able to supper the beasts the night, Mistress Gowrie.
Maybe Sandy will look to them. Puir Blackie! give him a good supper; he
didn't mean any ill."

Only Elsie Gray, of all the original group, still sat near Geordie,
where she could watch every movement, though she could not be seen by
him. She kept gazing at him with unutterable anguish in her eyes, and
only she detected the sharp spasms that occasionally crossed his face,
and felt his frame quiver with pain which he tried to conceal.

"Miss Campbell," she whispered to Grace who was seated near her, "he's
very sore hurt, I'm sure of it. Oh, will the doctor no come soon!" and
when Grace looked into Geordie's face she began to share Elsie's fears.

Presently Jean came bounding back in delight with her recovered treasure
to lay it in Geordie's hands. He looked at the gaily-bound book with his
most pleased smile, and then glancing at Jean proudly, he said, "Eh,
Jean, but ye'll be learnin' to be a grand scholar. I'm right glad ye