cks lay
among the water, and whether she could possibly find dry footing across
the stream. Presently she came upon a smooth row of stones, that were
evidently used as a thoroughfare. She had already begun to cross them,
keeping her eye cautiously fixed on the stepping-stones as she went
along, when she was startled by a voice which sounded close beside her.
On glancing round she saw on the opposite bank a boy standing with a
huge twisted cudgel in his hand, brandishing it in a warlike attitude.
He seemed to have suddenly appeared round one of the hillocks, and was
now shouting excitedly, in his rough northern dialect, as he waved his
stick:

"Hold back, mem; hold back, I tell ye. Blackie is in one o' his ill
moods the day, and he's no safe. Dinna come a foot farther."

Grace stood bewildered, balancing herself on the stepping-stones; the
apparition was so sudden that it almost took away her breath, and the
commands were so peremptory that she did not dare to disregard them by
going forward; but it seemed very hard to beat an ignominious retreat,
for here seemed to be just what she was in search of--a boy as
neglected-looking as any that were to be seen in the courts and alleys
of Edinburgh; of the very type which old Adam declared there was not one
to be found in all the lands of Kirklands. His head was bare, and his
flaxen hair so bleached by the sun that it looked quite white against
his bronzed face. He looked at Grace with a grave interest in his large
blue eyes, as if he would like to know a little more; but he still
brandished his cudgel before her, and shouted resolutely:

"Hold back, or Blackie will be at ye."

"But who is Blackie?" asked Grace, with a gasp, looking furtively round
in the direction of the birch wood, in case the said Blackie might be
approaching from behind.

"Who's Blackie!" said the boy, repeating the question, as if to hold up
to ridicule the absurd ignorance which it implied. "Do ye no ken that
Blackie is Gowrie's bull--the ill-natertest bull in a' the
country-side?"

"And what have you to do with Blackie?" asked Grace, glancing across to
the hillocks, where some cattle grazed inoffensively, in search of the
formidable animal.

"I herd him--I'm Gowrie's herd-laddie. They're all terrible easy-managed
beasts but him, and he's full o' ill tricks. He can't bear woman-folks,"
added the boy, with a slight mischievous twinkle in his eye; for he felt
more at his ease now, having assured hi