t brief thanks to the
farewells offered her. She would far rather have been left to pursue
her way without interruption. "Fare-ye-weel, neighbours, just tack Miss
Margaret's, and the laddies, and my ain thanks, but we canna delay, for
Jock will be spearing for us, and we ha' a lang journey to make before
nightfall," she said, bending her head towards one and the other as she
wended her way among them down the hill side.

Janet had a horror of cities and towns, having been bred and lived all
her life in the Highlands, with the exception of a brief visit she once
paid, with Mrs Morrison's mother, to beautiful --, on the east coast.
It being the only town with which she was acquainted, she had made up
her mind to go there.

She had heard also that there was a school in the place, and to that
school Donald and David must forthwith be sent. Without learning, she
was well aware, she could not expect them to get on in the world as she
wished. With regard to Margaret, the consideration of how she was to be
brought up in a way befitting a young lady, caused her more anxiety than
anything else. She might, indeed, teach her many useful things, but she
was herself incompetent, she felt, to train the little damsel's manners,
or to give her instruction from books. Still, "where there's a will
there's a way," she said to herself, "and I ha' a tongue in my head, and
that tongue I can wag whene'er it can do the bairns good."

The journey was a long one, and though honest Jock charged but little
for their conveyance, a large hole was made in Janet's means before they
arrived at the end of it.

The gaunt grave woman, with her three fresh blooming children, caused
some curiosity, as she went about looking for lodgings. A single upper
room was all she could venture to engage. Here she took up her quarters
with her young charges, and thanking her merciful Father who had brought
her thus far in safety, she felt like a hen which had safely gathered
her brood under her wings. She furnished her abode with two
truckle-beds, one for the boys, the other for Margaret and herself. She
procured also a small table and four three-legged stools, a similar
number of mugs and plates, and a few other inexpensive articles.

That same evening, determined not to lose a moment of time, with well
used spinning-wheel set up, she began to spin away as if she had been
long settled, while the children played around her, glad once more to
find themselv