prinkle
them with lavender and lay them away in that dim chamber of the heart
where we keep precious things. We all know the chamber. It is fragrant
with other hidden treasures, for all of them are sweet, though some are
sad. That is the reason why we put a finger on the lip and say 'Hush,'
if we open the door and allow any one to peep in.

We tied the pony by the wayside and alighted: Willie to gather some
sprays of the pink veronica and blue speedwell, I to sit on an old bench
and watch him in happy idleness. The 'white-blossomed slaes' sweetened
the air, and the distant hills were gay with golden whin and broom, or
flushed with the purply-red of the bell heather.

We heard the note of the cushats from a neighbouring bush. They used
to build their nests on the ground, so the story goes, but the cows
trampled them. Now they are wiser and build higher, and their cry is
supposed to be a derisive one, directed to their ancient enemies. 'Come
noo, Coo, Coo! Come noo!'

A hedgehog crept stealthily along the ground, and at a sudden sound
curled himself up like a wee brown bear. There were women working in
the fields near by,--a strange sight to our eyes at first, but nothing
unusual here, where many of them are employed on the farms all the year
round, sowing weeding, planting, even ploughing in the spring, and in
winter working at threshing or in the granary.

An old man, leaning on his staff, came tottering feebly along, and sank
down on the bench beside me. He was dirty, ragged, unkempt, and feeble,
but quite sober, and pathetically anxious for human sympathy.

"I'm achty-sax year auld,' he maundered, apropos of nothing, "achty-sax
year auld. I've seen five lairds o' Pettybaw, sax placed meenisters, an'
seeven doctors. I was a mason, an' a stoot mon i' thae days, but it's a
meeserable life noo. Wife deid, bairns deid! I sit by my lane, an' smoke
my pipe, wi' naebody to gi'e me a sup o' water. Achty-sax is ower auld
for a mon,--ower auld."

These are the sharp contrasts of life one cannot bear to face when one
is young and happy. Willie gave him a half-crown and some tobacco
for his pipe, and when the pony trotted off briskly, and we left the
shrunken figure alone on his bench as he was lonely in his life, we
kissed each other and pledged ourselves to look after him as long as
we remain in Pettybaw; for what is love worth if it does not kindle
the flames of spirit, open the gates of feeling, and widen the heart to
s