CHAPTER VII.

THE HERMIT'S GULLEY.



"O Bessie Bell and Mary Grey,
They were twa bonnie lasses--
They digged a bower on yonder brae,
And theek'd it o'er wi' rashes." BALLAD.


Steadfast slept soundly on the straw with Toby curled up by his side
till the morning light was finding its way in through all the chinks
of his rude little hovel.

When he had gathered his recollections he knew how much there was to
be done. He sprang to his feet, showing himself still his good
mother's own boy by kneeling down to his short prayer, then taking
off the clothes in which he had slept, and giving himself a good bath
in the pool under the bush of wax-berried guelder rose, and as good a
wash as he could without soap.

Then he milked the cows, for happily his own buckets had been at the
stable and thus were safe. He had just released Croppie and seen her
begin her breakfast on the grass, when Patience in her little red
hood came tripping through the glen with a broom over her shoulder,
and without the other children. Goody Grace had undertaken to keep
them for the day, whilst Patience worked with her brother, and had