ers to their work, had it not been
for another kind of cock inside him, which bore the same relation to
food that the others bore to light. He peeped first, then crept
out. All was still except the voices of those same prophet cocks,
crying in the wilderness of the yet sunless world; a moo now and
then from the byres; and the occasional stamp of a great hoof in the
stable. Gibbie clambered up into the loft, and turning the cheeses
about until he came upon the one he had gnawed before, again
attacked it, and enlarged considerably the hole he had already made
in it. Rather dangerous food it was, perhaps, eaten in that
unmitigated way, for it was made of skimmed milk, and was very dry
and hard; but Gibbie was a powerful little animal, all bones and
sinews, small hard muscle, and faultless digestion. The next idea
naturally rising was the burn; he tumbled down over the straw heap
to the floor of the barn, and made for the cat-hole. But the moment
he put his head out, he saw the legs of a man: the farmer was
walking through his ricks, speculating on the money they held. He
drew back, and looked round to see where best he could betake
himself should he come in. He spied thereupon a ladder leaning
against the end-wall of the barn, opposite the loft and the stables,
and near it in the wall a wooden shutter, like the door of a little
cupboard. He got up the ladder, and opening the shutter, which was
fastened only with a button, found a hole in the wall, through which
popping his head too carelessly, he knocked from a shelf some piece
of pottery, which fell with a great crash on a paved floor. Looking
after it, Gibbie beheld below him a rich prospect of yellow-white
pools ranged in order on shelves. They reminded him of milk, but
were of a different colour. As he gazed, a door opened hastily,
with sharp clicking latch, and a woman entered, ejaculating, "Care
what set that cat!" Gibbie drew back, lest in her search for the
cat she might find the culprit. She looked all round, muttering
such truncated imprecations as befitted the mouth of a Scotchwoman;
but as none of her milk was touched, her wrath gradually abated: she
picked up the fragments and withdrew.

Thereupon Gibbie ventured to reconnoitre a little farther, and
popping in his head again, saw that the dairy was open to the roof,
but the door was in a partition which did not run so high. The
place from which the woman entered, was ceiled, and the ceiling