pear in sheltered and sunny spots. Oh! how fair and sweet it all was
to Marjorie's unaccustomed eyes!

"Oh, Allie!" said she, "can it be true that I am here?"

She could not free her arms from the enveloping shawl to clasp Allie's
neck, but she raised herself a little and laid her cheek against hers,
and then she whispered:

"I prayed the Lord to let me come." Then they went on in the soft warm
air their pleasant way. By and by they left the road and went over the
rougher ground that lay between them and the end of their journey. In a
hollow where there was standing water, Allison took the wrong turning,
and so going a little out of the way, came suddenly on the mistress and
her noisy crowd of bairns, who were looking for them in another
direction.

It was a day to be remembered. But it was not all pleasure to every
one, though every moment was full of delight to Marjorie. The bairns
were wild and not easily managed, and the mistress "had her ain adoes
among them." Of course the tawse had been left at home, and the
sternness of countenance which was the right and proper thing in the
school, the mistress felt would be out of place among the hills, even
supposing the bairns would heed it, which was doubtful. As for setting
limits beyond which they were not to wander, that was easily done, but
with all the treasures of the hills awaiting discovery, was it likely
that these limits would be kept in mind?

The mistress strode after the first wandering group, and called after
the second, and then she declared that "they maun gang their ain gait,
and tak' their chance o' being lost on the hills," and she said this
with such solemnity of countenance as to convince the little ones who
remained that they at least had best bide where they were. It was not
likely, after all, that anything more serious than wet feet or perhaps
torn clothes would happen to them--serious enough troubles in their own
way, and likely to be followed by appropriate pains and penalties
without the intervention of the mistress. At any rate they must just
take their chance.

So, she "put them off her mind," and with the other bairns, and Allison
carrying Marjorie in her arms, wandered for a while among "the Stanes."

Seven great stones there were, arranged around another greater still;
and they might well wonder, as many had wondered before them, how they
had been brought there, and by whom, and for what purpose. That is,
Marjorie wondered,