ner since ever he could remember himself.
He loitered near until he saw Donal arrive, then crept after him
and the porter up the stair, and when Donal sat down by the fire,
got into the room and behind the curtain.

The boys had then a jolly time of it. They made their tea, for
which everything was present, and ate as boys know how, Donal
enjoying the rarity of the white bread of the city, Gibbie, who had
not tasted oatmeal since he came, devouring "mother's cakes." When
they had done, Gibbie, who had learned much since he came, looked
about the room till he found a bell-rope, and pulled it, whereupon
the oddest-looking old woman, not a hair altered from what Gibbie
remembered her, entered, and, with friendly chatter, proceeded to
remove the tray. Suddenly something arrested her, and she began to
regard Gibbie with curious looks; in a moment she was sure of him,
and a torrent of exclamations and reminiscences and appeals
followed, which lasted, the two lads now laughing, now all but
crying for nearly an hour, while, all the time, the old woman kept
doing and undoing about the hearth and the tea table. Donal asked
many questions about his friend, and she answered freely, except as
often as one approached his family, when she would fall silent, and
bustle about as if she had not heard. Then Gibbie would look
thoughtful and strange and a little sad, and a far-away gaze would
come into his eyes, as if he were searching for his father in the
other world.

When the good woman at length left them, they uncorded Donal's kist,
discovered the cause of its portentous weight, took out everything,
put the provisions in a cupboard, arranged the few books, and then
sat down by the fire for "a read" together.

The hours slipped away; it was night; and still they sat and read.
It must have been after ten o' clock when they heard footsteps
coming through the adjoining room; the door opened swiftly; in
walked Mr. Sclater, and closed it behind him. His look was
angry--severe enough for boys caught card-playing, or drinking, or
reading something that was not divinity on a Sunday. Gibbie had
absented himself without permission, had stayed away for hours, had
not returned even when the hour of worship arrived; and these were
sins against the respectability of his house which no minister like
Mr. Sclater could pass by. It mattered nothing what they were
doing! it was all one when it got to midnight! then it became
revelling, and