at day till this."

"But Donald Ross, up among the hills, told Archie that folk thought he
had 'listed for a soldier, and that he couldna come back again."

"Well, maybe not," said Nancy. "Far be it from me to seek to make worse
what is bad enough already. It's not unlikely. But, as I was saying,
Archie's growing awfu' like him, and it is to be hoped he will not take
to ill ways. You should have an eye upon him, Lilias, my woman, that he
doesn't take up with folk that `call evil good, and good evil.' It was
that was the ruin of Hugh Blair,--poor laddie!"

"Archie sees no one among the hills that can do him harm," said Lilias,
hastily,--"only Donald Ross and the Muirlands shepherds, and now and
then a herd-laddie from Alliston. He ay tells us, when he comes home,
who he has seen."

"Eh, woman! I didn't mean to anger you," exclaimed Nancy. "I declare,
your eyes are glancing like two coals. But, if your aunt is wise,
she'll put him to some kind of work before long. Laddies like him must
ay be about something; and if they are doing no good it's likely they'll
be doing evil. Your aunt should know that well enough, without the like
of me to tell her."

"But Archie is such a mere child," remonstrated Lilias, forgetting for
the moment that it was Mrs Stirling, the grumbler for the countryside,
that was speaking. "What ill can he get among the hills? And, besides,
what work could he do? It's health for him to wander about among the
hills. It makes him strong."

"You're a child yourself for that matter," said Nancy; "and I'm thinking
what with those children's catechism and work, and one thing and
another, you do the most part of a woman's work. And what's to hinder
your brother more than you? It would keep him out of harm's way."

Lilias suffered this conversation to make her uncomfortable for a few
days, and then she wisely put it from her. She would not speak to
Archie. She would not even seem to distrust him. And still the boy
came and went at his pleasure, enjoying his rambles and his intercourse
with his new friends, glad to go forth, and glad to come home again,
where the sight of his face always made sunshine for his sister. And
Mrs Blair still went about with outward calm, but carrying within her a
heavy and anxious heart, as by the sighs and prayers of many a sleepless
night, Lilias well knew.

This was the child's one sorrow. Sometimes she longed to speak to her
aunt about her cousin, and