d from
the parlour close to the head of his grandmother's bed. It was just
large enough to hold a good-sized bed with curtains, a chest of drawers,
a bureau, a large eight-day clock, and one chair, leaving in the centre
about five feet square for him to move about in. There was more room
as well as more comfort in the bed. He was never allowed a candle, for
light enough came through from the parlour, his grandmother thought; so
he was soon extended between the whitest of cold sheets, with his knees
up to his chin, and his thoughts following his lost father over
all spaces of the earth with which his geography-book had made him
acquainted.

He was in the habit of leaving his closet and creeping through his
grandmother's room before she was awake--or at least before she
had given any signs to the small household that she was restored to
consciousness, and that the life of the house must proceed. He therefore
found no difficulty in liberating Shargar from his prison, except
what arose from the boy's own unwillingness to forsake his comfortable
quarters for the fierce encounter of the January blast which awaited
him. But Robert did not turn him out before the last moment of safety
had arrived; for, by the aid of signs known to himself, he watched
the progress of his grandmother's dressing--an operation which did
not consume much of the morning, scrupulous as she was with regard to
neatness and cleanliness--until Betty was called in to give her careful
assistance to the final disposition of the mutch, when Shargar's exit
could be delayed no longer. Then he mounted to the foot of the second
stair, and called in a keen whisper,

'Noo, Shargar, cut for the life o' ye.'

And down came the poor fellow, with long gliding steps, ragged and
reluctant, and, without a word or a look, launched himself out into the
cold, and sped away he knew not whither. As he left the door, the only
suspicion of light was the dull and doubtful shimmer of the snow that
covered the street, keen particles of which were blown in his face by
the wind, which, having been up all night, had grown very cold, and
seemed delighted to find one unprotected human being whom it might
badger at its own bitter will. Outcast Shargar! Where he spent the
interval between Mrs. Falconer's door and that of the school, I do not
know. There was a report amongst his school-fellows that he had been
found by Scroggie, the fish-cadger, lying at full length upon the back
of hi