l; but he was on his way from the one place
to the other when Angus overtook him, and received neither letter.

Now came to the girl a few such days of delight, of freedom, of
life, as she had never even dreamed of. She roamed Glashgar with
Gibbie, the gentlest, kindest, most interesting of companions.
Wherever his sheep went, she went too, and to many places
besides--some of them such strange, wild, terrible places, as would
have terrified her without him. How he startled her once by darting
off a rock like a seagull, straight, head-foremost, into the
Death-pot! She screamed with horror, but he had done it only to
amuse her; for, after what seemed to her a fearful time, he came
smiling up out of the terrible darkness. What a brave, beautiful
boy he was! He never hurt anything, and nothing ever seemed to hurt
him. And what a number of things he knew! He showed her things on
the mountain, things in the sky, things in the pools and streams
wherever they went. He did better than tell her about them; he made
her see them, and then the things themselves told her. She was not
always certain she saw just what he wanted her to see, but she
always saw something that made her glad with knowledge. He had a
New Testament Janet had given him, which he carried in his pocket,
and when she joined him, for he was always out with his sheep hours
before she was up, she would generally find him seated on a stone,
or lying in the heather, with the little book in his hand, looking
solemn and sweet. But the moment he saw her, he would spring
merrily up to welcome her. It were indeed an argument against
religion as strong as sad, if one of the children the kingdom
specially claims, could not be possessed by the life of the Son of
God without losing his simplicity and joyousness. Those of my
readers will be the least inclined to doubt the boy, who, by
obedience, have come to know its reward. For obedience alone holds
wide the door for the entrance of the spirit of wisdom. There was
as little to wonder at in Gibbie as there was much to love and
admire, for from the moment when, yet a mere child, he heard there
was such a one claiming his obedience, he began to turn to him the
hearing ear, the willing heart, the ready hand. The main thing
which rendered this devotion more easy and natural to him than to
others was, that, more than in most, the love of man had in him
prepared the way of the Lord. He who so loved the sons of men w