“But when autumn passed away, when the leaves fell, and the fields were bleak and bare, at night, when the wind moaned around the house which I now called home, then, Archie, I used to dream I heard the surf beating in on the rugged shores of my native land. I would start and listen, and long to be once more in Scotland.
“I went, one day, to the forest all alone; I went to think.
“‘What are you staying here for?’ perhaps said one little thought. ‘Major Walton may leave you money when he dies.’
“I smothered that thought at its birth, and crushed many more like it.
“Kind good old Major Walton! I must tear myself away; I must be independent; I must push my own way in the world.
“‘Heaven help me to do so,’ I prayed. Then I took out the little old Bible Nancy had given me, Archie, and I found some comfort there.
“I was putting it back again in my bosom when a little card dropped out; I picked it up. On it were pressed these, Archie.”
Kenneth took the Book from his breast as he spoke, and opening it, handed the card to Archie.
“I know,” said the latter: “the primrose and the bit of heather.”