iskly, and across the meadow he could catch a
glimpse of the river, and in the distance the Kilspindie Woods with
their mysterious depths, and rising high above the houses on the other
side of the river was the hill where he spent last Saturday. The bell
rings and he goes in, but not to work; the river is running through his
heart, and the greenery is before his eyes, and the wind coming in puffs
through the open window awakens the instinct of the wild animal in his
breast and invites him to be free. Speug has a slate before him, but he
is not pretending to do anything, he is looking out on the Meadow, and
sniffing the air, just like a horse about to make its bolt. He catches
Howieson's eye and reads that Jock is ready. Howieson inquires by signal
of Bauldie whether he prefers compound fractions to a swim, and Bauldie
explains, also by signal, that, much as he loves fractions, he will be
obliging that afternoon and join them in their swim. A fourth would
complete the party; and when Speug lifts his eyebrows with great
dramatic art to "Piggie" Mitchell, three desks off, "Piggie," like the
gallant spirit that he was, answers with a nod that he will not be found
wanting. Not a word has been said, and no one will say "Truant" at any
time, but at the next break the four separate themselves quietly and
unobtrusively from their fellows, and by the time the last boy has gone
through the door, they are scudding across the meadow to Speug's
stable-yard, where they will make their preparations. Sometimes nothing
more is needed than a hunch of bread and some fish-hooks; but as they
ran Speug had dropped the word Woody Island, and a day on Woody Island
was a work of art. It lay a couple of miles above the town, long and
narrow, formed with a division of the river into its main current and a
sluggish backwater. It was covered with dense brushwood, except where
here and there a patch of green turf was left bare, and the island was
indented with little bays where the river rippled on clean sand and
gravel. It was only a little island, but yet you could lose yourself in
it, so thick was the wood and so mazy, and then you had to find your
comrades by signal; and it had little tracks through it, and there was
one place where you could imagine a hole in the bank to be a cave, and
where certainly two boys could get out of sight if they lay very close
together and did not mind being half smothered. When you went to Woody
Island, and left the m