ngers you know one
wouldn't like to appear too bare, if they could help it."

The tone in which these words were spoke could not fail in at once
reaching the poor woman's heart. She wept as much from gratitude as the
gloomy alternative involved in Katty's benevolent offer.

"God bless you," she exclaimed, "but I trust in the Almighty, there
may be hope and that they won't be wanted. Still, how can I hope when I
think of the way he's in? But God is good, blessed be his holy name!"

So saying, the priest came down,and they both set out on their bleak and
desolate journey.

The natural aspect of the surrounding country was in good keeping with
the wild and stormy character of the morning. Before them, in the back
ground, rose a magnificent range of mountains, whose snowy peaks were
occasionally seen far above the dusky clouds which drifted rapidly
across their bosoms. The whole landscape, in fact, teemed with a
spirit of savage grandeur. Many of the glens on each side were deep
and precipitous, where rock beetled over rock, and ledge projected over
ledge, in a manner so fearful that the mind of the spectator, excited
and rapt into terror by the contemplation of them, wondered why they did
not long ago tumble into the chasm beneath, so slight was their apparent
support. Even in the mildest, seasons desolation brooded over the lesser
hills and mountains about them; what then must it not have been at the
period we are describing? From a hill a little to the right, over which
they had to pass, a precipitous headland was visible, against which the
mighty heavings of the ocean could be heard hoarsely thundering at a
distance, and the giant billows, in periods of storm and tempest, seen
shivering themselves into white; foam that rose nearly to the summit of
their immovable barriers.

Such was the toilsome country over which our two travellers had to pass.

It was not without difficulty and fatigue that the priest and his
companion wended their way towards one of the moors we have, mentioned.
The snow beat against them with great violence, sometimes rendering
it almost impossible for them to keep their eyes open or to see
their proper path across the hills. The woman, however, trod her
way instinctively, and whilst the, priest aided her by his superior
strength, she in return guided him by a clearer sagacity. Neither spoke
much, for in truth each had enough to do in combating with the toil and
peril of the journey, as well a