child? Anyhow, you are much too young to criticize my actions. Let us
have no more of it! An unmarried girl is not entitled to opinions that
clash with her parents'."

Grace went out silently. To know that she had failed hurt her pride, and
it hurt worse to suspect that her father had got angry because he knew
she was right. Besides, she felt strangely alone; as she had often felt
since she came home. Gerald was careless and thought about nothing but
his extravagant amusements; her mother's main object was to avoid jars
and smooth over awkward situations. Then, she had household cares; money
was scarce, and since Osborn hated self-denial, she must economize. Grace
could not tell her her troubles; but there was a way by which Railton
might save his lease and Kit could help. Getting a pencil and paper, she
wrote him a very short note:

"You must find Railton's sheep."

Then, knowing that she was rash, she went to look for the gardener's boy,
and sent him to Ashness.




CHAPTER VI

BLEATARN GHYLL


It was getting dark when Kit and Tom, the shepherd, stopped to rest
behind a cairn on the summit of Swinset moor. Close by, the two score