hill that fades away with the day.'

She ended hastily, for her husband was coming up with a rough pony's
halter in his hand. He was in haste to be off, lest a search for the
lost child might extend to his abode, and his gloomy displeasure and
ill-masked uneasiness reduced every-one to silence in his presence.

'Up and away, lady wench!' he said. 'No time to lose if you are to
be at Greystone ere night! Thou Hal, thou lazy lubber, go with Piers
and the sheep--'

'I shall go with you,' replied Hal, in a grave tone of resolution.
'I will only go within view of the convent, but go with you I will.'

He spoke with a decided tone of authority, and Hob Hogward muttered a
little to himself, but yielded.

Hal assisted the young lady to mount, and they set off along the
track of the moss, driving the cows, sheep, and goats before them--
not a very considerable number--till they came to another hut, much
smaller and more rude than that where they had left Mother Doll.

Piers was a wild, shaggy-haired lad, with a sheepskin over his
shoulders, and legs bare below the knee, and to him the charge of the
flock was committed, with signs which he evidently understood and
replied to with a gruff 'Ay, ay!' The three went on the way, over
the slope of a hill, partly clothed with heather, holly and birch
trees, as it rose above the moss. Hob led the pony, and there was
something in his grim air and manner that hindered any conversation
between the two young people. Only Hal from time to time gathered a