“Think ye the Lord wad hae letten stan’ a’ these years in a Christian land like Scotland sic monuments o’ will worship and idolatry? Na, na, lassie, I couldna believe that, though your father should preach it out o’ the poopit.”
“But, Mistress Jamieson, the Lord lets ill men (evil men) live in Scotland, and has patience with them, and whiles saves them from their sins. And maybe the folk were ‘feeling after Him’ in those faraway days.”
“John Beaton told my father that these muckle stanes are quite different from the rest o’ the stanes upon the hills hereaboot,” said Annie Cairns.
“John Beaton nae less!” said the mistress scornfully. “As gin the Lord couldna put what kin’ o’ stanes He liket wherever it was His will to put them. And what kens John Beaton mair than the lave?”
“Grannie thinks it was the fairies that brocht them up the brae. But John kens weel about stanes.”
It was Annie Cairns, one of the older lassies, who had made the last two ventures. It was certainly a bold thing for a lassie, who was every day convicted in the school of lost loops in her stocking, to put in her word with her betters on such a matter. The mistress answered her with a look which she knew well, and heeded little. But it startled Marjorie, who had only heard about such looks from her brothers. Her face warned Allison that enough had been said.
“Ye’re growing tired, my lammie, and ye’ll need to lie down and rest for a while.”
“Yes, I’m tired, now that I think about it,” said the child, lying back in her kind arms again.
The wind had grown a little sharp by this time, and they found a sheltered spot on which the sunshine fell, on the south side of one of the great stones; here Allie made a couch, and the child rested on it in perfect content. Some of the little ones were tired also, and fell asleep, and were well happed by Allison and the mistress, and the rest went away to amuse themselves for a while.
Marjorie did not mean to go to sleep. She could see a wide stretch of sky, over which the white clouds were wandering still, and the tops of the faraway hills, and she thought she could see the sea. But she was asleep and dreaming when it came to that.