last, "I do believe I shall be kept as long upon the road, with this heavy
basket, as Archie Kerr was in going to Langholm. What shall I do with it?
I cannot be so very ungrateful as to leave it on the road, after Mr. Scott
has been so kind as to give the pots to me; and how I shall get it home, I
am sure, I do not know. It will be dark night before I can reach the
Manse."

Just as he took it up, to proceed a little farther, he heard the voice of
some one singing near the spot where he was: he listened, and thought it
came from the river side; but the trees that grew in that direction
prevented him from seeing. He therefore put down his basket and ran across
the road, to try if he could discover whether it was any one he knew; and,
to his great delight, found it was Tom, David Little's son. Tom, as soon
as he saw John, skipped up to him and shook hands most cordially. "I am so
glad to see you," said he, "for you will tell Miss Helen that my chickens
are all alive yet; and mammy says if they live another week, I shall then
be pretty sure of rearing them, if I take care always to shut them up at
night, to prevent the fox from getting at them. They are nasty, greedy,
cruel creatures, these foxes and mammy says, I cannot be too watchful to
preserve my chickens from them; for they are very cunning, and are always
ready to seize the first opportunity of snapping up any thing that is left
in their way." John agreed, that all Tom said was quite true; for he
remembered, he had suffered himself from the depredations; having had a
whole brood of young ducks devoured in one night, when he lived near
Langholm. He then told Tom the distress he was in about his basket. Tom
immediately cried, "O, I will tell you how we will manage. Do you take out
three of the pots, and give them to me; and I will carry them as far as
the Manse for you; for my mammy will not expect me home for two hours. She
bade me go out and give Colly a walk; for he is quite stupid, and even
ill, for want of his usual exercise on the hills; so I thought I would