, I'm tired, now that I think about it," said the child, lying back
in her kind arms again.

The wind had grown a little sharp by this time, and they found a
sheltered spot on which the sunshine fell, on the south side of one of
the great stones; here Allie made a couch, and the child rested on it in
perfect content. Some of the little ones were tired also, and fell
asleep, and were well happed by Allison and the mistress, and the rest
went away to amuse themselves for a while.

Marjorie did not mean to go to sleep. She could see a wide stretch of
sky, over which the white clouds were wandering still, and the tops of
the faraway hills, and she thought she could see the sea. But she was
asleep and dreaming when it came to that.

In the meantime, soothed by a whiff of her pipe, Mistress Jamieson was
getting on quite friendly terms with Allison, who had her good word from
that day forth. For with the most respectful attention she sat
listening to the all-embracing and rather dismal monologue of the old
woman, as few were accustomed to do. Did she listen? She certainly did
not understand all that was said, and she could not afterward have
repeated a word of it. But she saw a face, wrinkled and grey, and not
very happy--an old, tired face. And if she was thinking of troubles
that had made deep lines in other faces, rather than of the cares and
vexations which had saddened the lot and soured the temper of the
schoolmistress, her silence and the softening look in her beautiful, sad
eyes, and the grave "ay" or "no" that came in response to some more
direct appeal, pleased and soothed the heart of the lonely old woman to
a sense of comfort which came seldom enough to her.

And though Allison's answers were of the briefest, when the mistress
began to question her about herself and her life before she came to
Nethermuir, they were civil, and they were quietly and readily given,
and fortunately there was not much time for questions; for the bairns
came straggling back by twos and threes as they had gone away. Each
brought some treasure found in their wanderings, and Marjorie would have
been buried beneath the offerings of flowers, and tender green bracken,
and "bonny stanies" that were brought to her, if Annie Cairns had not
taken possession of them all, promising to carry them safe to the manse.

There were still some stragglers for whom they must wait. There would
have been little good in going to search for them, a