all in his wake "Ha-ha-ha" he calls, and the Nannies answer. Ay, and
the sheep are rising up too! How white they look in the moonshine!
Piers--deaf as he is--waking at their music. Ba, they call the
lambs! Nay, that's no call of sheep or goat! 'Tis some child
crying, all astray! Ha! Hilloa, where beest thou? Tarry till I
come! Move not, or thou mayst be in the bogs and mosses! Come,
Watch'--to a great unwieldy collie puppy--'let us find her.'

A feeble piteous sound answered him, and following the direction of
the reply, he strode along, between the rocks and thorn-bushes that
guarded the slope of the hill, to a valley covered with thick moss,
veiling treacherously marshy ground in which it was easy to sink.

The cry came from the further side, where a mountain stream had force
enough to struggle through the swamp. There were stepping-stones
across the brook, which the boy knew, and he made his way from one to
the other, calling out cheerily to the little figure that he began to
discern in the fading light, and who answered him with tones
evidently girlish, 'O come, come, shepherd! Here I am! I am lost
and lorn! They will reward thee! Oh, come fast!'

'All in good time, lassie! Haste is no good here! I must look to my
footing.'

Presently he was by the side of the wanderer, and could see that it
was a maiden of ten or twelve years old, who somehow, even in the
darkness, had not the air of one of the few inhabitants of that wild
mountain district.

'Lost art thou, maiden,' he said, as he stood beside her; 'where is