e hills.

The time glided on. The white bed was no longer inviting, and he could
not tear himself away from the window. At last, though, thinking that
he had better lie down for fear of being very tired next day, he reached
out his hand to draw in the casement, but kept it there, for a very
familiar sound now struck upon his ear: _Clap, clap, clap, clap_ of
wings, and then a thoroughly hearty old English cock-a-doodle-doo! and
the boy burst into a merry laugh.

"Go to sleep, you muddle-headed thing," he muttered. "Don't make that
noise in the middle of the night.--They always do that at home when the
moon shines."

But the cock-crow was answered from a distance, and there was the lowing
of cows; chirping came from the trees, there was the piping of the
magpie, and soon after the deep chuckle of a great kingfisher, followed
by burst of; shrieks and jarring calls from a great tree; and it
suddenly struck the watcher that there was a pallid light shed from
somewhere behind him.

"Why," he said half aloud, in a regular Hibernian spirit, "it's
to-morrow morning!"

Morning it was, coming on fast; and all thought of bed being now given
over, Nic began to put on his shoes.

"Lady O'Hara said things were all upside down here," he muttered; "but I
didn't know I was going to sleep in the daylight and sit up all night."

A few minutes' thought, however, took away his surprise at the
apparently sudden advent of the dawn, for it was well on toward morning
when the family had left the dining-room--that name being maintained;
and now, feeling bright, cheery, and full of anticipations of what he
had to see in his new home, Nic had a wash and brush and hurried out, to
find that the business of the day had begun.

The first he encountered was Leather, who responded to his cheery good
morning with a keen look and a surly nod, as he passed on, and went off
from the shed he had left for the open field.

The next minute, as Nic went round the house, there was a tremendous
burst of barking, and the two dogs charged at him so excitedly that one
went right over the other in collision; but they were up again directly,
leaping at him, careering round, snapping playfully at each other, and
madly showing their delight at meeting a familiar face in the strange
home.

"Hullo, old fellows!--good dogs, then!" cried Nic, lavishing his
caresses on the excited beasts. "Down there! steady there! I'm not for
breakfast: don't eat me." The d