hand; then bending low, she pointed to the loch-side a quarter of
a mile below, where a herd of half a dozen black Galloway cows,
necked with the red and white of the smaller Ayrshires, could be
seen pushing its way through the lush heavy grass of the water
meadow.

"Away by there! Fetch them, Roger!" she cried. "Haud at them--the
kye's in the meadow!"

The dogs darted away level. The cows continued their slow advance,
browsing as they went, but in a little while their dark fronts
were turned towards the dogs as after a momentary indecision they
recognized an enemy. With a startled rush the herd drove through
the meadow and poured across the unfenced road up to the hill
pasture which they had left, whose scanty grasses had doubtless
turned slow bovine thoughts to the coolness of the meadow grass,
and the pleasure of standing ruminant knee-deep in the river, with
wavy tail nicking the flies in the shade.

For a little while Ralph Peden breathed freely again, but his
satisfaction was short-lived. One girl was discomposing enough,
but here were two. Moreover the new-comer, having arranged some
blankets in a tub to her satisfaction, calmly tucked up her skirts
in a professional manner and got bare-foot into the tub beside
them. Then it dawned upon Ralph, who was not very instructed on
matters of household economy, that he had chanced upon a Galloway
blanket-washing; and that, like the gentleman who spied upon
Musidora's toilet, of whom he had read in Mr. James Thomson's
Seasons, he might possibly see more than he had come out to see.