every now and then on his way to the New Farm, 'Queer book that; and
a queer chap too!'




CHAPTER IV.

THREATENING CLOUDS.


Little Nan would be waiting for him, as well as his supper, and Stephen
forgot his weariness as he bounded along the soft turf, to the great
discomfiture of the brown-faced sheep, quite as anxious for their supper
as he was for his.

Stephen heard far off Snip's sharp, impatient bark, and it made him
quicken his steps still more, until, coming within sight of his own
Hollow, he stopped suddenly, and his heart beat even more vehemently than
when he was running up the hillside.

There was, however, nothing very terrible in the scene. The hut was safe,
and the sun was shining brightly upon the garden, and little Nan was
standing as usual at the wicket. Only in the oat-field, with their faces
looking across the green, stood two men in close conversation. These men
were both of them old, and rather thin and shrivelled in figure; their
features bore great resemblance to each other, the eyes being small and
sunken, with many wrinkles round them, and both mouths much fallen in.
You would have said at once they were brothers; and if you drew near
enough to hear their conversation, you would have found your guess was