ible made the pain. For a
terrible fear had come upon Katie. Or rather, by the constant watching
of her grandmother's looks and words, she had come to the knowledge that
she feared for the old man something which she had never put into words.

It was Sunday afternoon, a lovely June day, and they were sitting at the
foot of the little knoll under the birch-tree, where the two Holts had
found them on that Sunday morning long ago. The rest of the bairns had
gone with their mother to the Sunday-school at the Scott school-house as
usual, and their grandfather and grandmother were sitting together in
the house. Davie had been sitting there too, with his book in his hand,
but he had not enjoyed it much; he had nodded over it at last and
dropped asleep, and then grannie had bidden him go out to the air for a
while and stretch himself, adding to his grandfather as he went:

"He's wearied with his week's work, poor laddie, and canna keep his eyes
open, and it will do him good to stroll quietly down the brae to the
burn. And Katie, lassie, you can go with him for a little till the
bairns and your mother come home."

So, her grandfather saying nothing, Katie went well pleased, and the two
soon found themselves at their favourite place of rest, at the point
where the Ythan begins to gurgle and murmur over the stones at the foot
of the birch knoll.

They had both changed a good deal since the day the Holts found them
sitting there. There seemed a greater difference in their ages than
there had seemed then, for Katie, as bonnie and fresh as ever, was
almost a woman now. Davie was a boy still, long and lank, and not
nearly so handsome as he used to be, but there was promise of strength
and good looks too, when a few years should be over. He had worked
constantly and hard for the last year, and he stooped a little sometimes
when he was tired, and Katie was beginning to fear lest he should become
round-shouldered and "slouching," and was in the way of giving him
frequent hints about carrying himself uprightly, as he went about the
farm. But he was as fine a young fellow as one could wish to see, and
his looks promised well for the manhood that did not lie very far before
him.

They were silent for a good while after Katie's outburst. She sat on
the grass, her hands clasped round her knees, and her eyes fixed on the
rippling water of the burn. Davie lay back on the grass with his head
on his clasped hands regarding her. S