nded, and his lungs grew hardy as well as
powerful; till he became at length such in wind and muscle, that he
could run down a wayward sheep almost as well as Oscar. And his
nerve grew also with his body and strength, till his coolness and
courage were splendid. Never, when the tide of his affairs ran most
in the shallows, had Gibbie had much acquaintance with fears, but
now he had forgotten the taste of them, and would have encountered a
wild highland bull alone on the mountain, as readily as tie Crummie
up in her byre.

One afternoon, Donal, having got a half-holiday, by the help of a
friend and the favour of Mistress Jean, came home to see his mother,
and having greeted her, set out to find Gibbie. He had gone a long
way, looking and calling without success, and had come in sight of a
certain tiny loch, or tarn, that filled a hollow of the mountain.
It was called the Deid Pot; and the old awe, amounting nearly to
terror, with which in his childhood he had regarded it, returned
upon him, the moment he saw the dark gleam of it, nearly as strong
as ever--an awe indescribable, arising from mingled feelings of
depth, and darkness, and lateral recesses, and unknown serpent-like
fishes. The pot, though small in surface, was truly of unknown
depth, and had elements of dread about it telling upon far less
active imaginations than Donal's. While he stood gazing at it,
almost afraid to go nearer, a great splash that echoed from the
steep rocks surrounding it, brought his heart into his mouth, and
immediately followed a loud barking, in which he recognized the
voice of Oscar. Before he had well begun to think what it could
mean, Gibbie appeared on the opposite side of the loch, high above
its level, on the top of the rocks forming its basin. He began
instantly a rapid descent towards the water, where the rocks were so
steep, and the footing so precarious, that Oscar wisely remained at
the top, nor attempted to follow him. Presently the dog caught
sight of Donal, where he stood on a lower level, whence the water
was comparatively easy of access, and starting off at full speed,
joined him, with much demonstration of welcome. But he received
little notice from Donal, whose gaze was fixed, with much wonder and
more fear, on the descending Gibbie. Some twenty feet from the
surface of the loch, he reached a point whence clearly, in Donal's
judgment, there was no possibility of farther descent. But Donal
was never more mis