"Oh, I know all," she cried; "don't speak—nay, wait now till I return."
And the creature was off like a September meteor disappearing in the west, as if to make up again to the sun, far down away behind the hills from whence it had been struck off in the height of the day.
What can the strange creature mean? But she had had experience of her, and knew the instinctive divination that got at objects and results where reason in full-grown man would syllogize into the darkness of despair.
Nor was it long before she is running back, leaping with all the abandon of a romp, crying—
"I will save dear Charlie yet; for I love him as much as I hate that old curmudgeon."
"What does the girl mean? Whaur was you, bairn?" said her mother.
"Oh mother, how cold it is for you! Wrap the cloak about you."
"But what is it that you mean, Jeannie?"
"We shall be home by-and-by; come."
And, putting an arm round her mother's waist, she impelled her forward with the strength of her wythe of an arm.