u maun sit
on it, if you like."

"On what?" Elsie asked sharply.

"The fish," the man replied.

Elsie and Duncan had both noticed a strange odour, which Elsie
attributed to a stagnant pool of water near which they were standing.
She now peered over the side of the cart, which was more like a lidless
box on wheels than anything else, and she perceived that it was full of
fish. The man occupied the only available sitting-place in front. What
was to be done? Elsie looked all along the road. There was no sign of
any other vehicle, not even a person to be seen. Their choice plainly
lay between walking the whole distance or riding in the cart.

"We are very tired," Elsie said, dubiously. "Shall we get in, Duncan?"

Oh, how the vision of home rose up before Duncan's longing eyes! Mother
would be at home now, just sitting down to tea, perhaps.

"If you'd like to," he said, without much interest.

"Ye might take the sack," the man said good-naturedly, unskewering it,
and laying it down on top of the mass the cart contained. It was really
a kind action, for Elsie noticed that the rags he wore had nothing of
warmth about them, and the air was already tolerably sharp and keen.

The children scrambled in on the top of the sack, and the man bent his
energies to starting his old horse once more on his shambling trot.

When the children had got a little bit accustomed to the cart Elsie
opened her basket to get some bread, for they were ravenously hungry.
Just then the man turned round; his eye lighted with a hungry, almost
wolfish, glance on the sweet white bread and firm yellow cheese. "Will
you have some?" Elsie asked, almost in fear, for he looked so fierce.

In reply he stretched out his hand, greedily seized the remaining
portion of their loaf which Elsie was just about to divide, and without
a word of apology, devoured it like a hungry animal.

CHAPTER VII.--THE CROFTER'S COTTAGE.

So far as speed went, the children might as well have walked. The poor
old horse, as miserable and starved-looking as his master, kept steadily
on, with a sort of halting trot, varied every now and then by an awkward
stumble, which was saved from being a fall by the man's prompt use of
the reins.

It seemed as if they were hours on the road. The murky atmosphere,
obscured by storm-clouds, made the evening grow dark earlier than is
usual in northern latitudes. The heavy rumbling of the wretched vehicle,
the cramped position in which the