By-and-by Sandy came in, and stood staring hopelessly. Then he began to scratch his head, and looked altogether so stupid that Mrs. Ferguson administered him a good shaking, and demanded of him what he meant by it.
"Where be the bairns?" Sandy asked, in his rough Gaelic.
Then Mrs. Ferguson flew out, and when she could see none of them her wrath knew no bounds. Young Sandy and Jamie, her two boys, were discovered under the cart, and when dragged out and cuffed, declared that Elsie and Duncan had beaten them, and then run as fast as they could down the road; that they had called as loudly as they could, but were unable to make any one hear; and plenty more tales, that their mother knew were made up to shield themselves.
Having called them every bad name she could think of, and dealt them some stinging blows, she flew along the road to seek them. The road wound about pretty much, and as they were nowhere in sight, she concluded they must have gone by it. She came back furiously angry and disappointed, and continued her search till nightfall in the immediate neighbourhood of the croft, but without success. Sandy and Jamie were not to be envied that night.
Thus it happened that the police were quite baffled in their endeavours to find the children, and after they had fallen into Mrs. Donaldson's hands the description given was not accurate.
(To be continued.)
THE SONG OF A LITTLE BIRD.
hough I'm but a small bird,
I may often be heard
These evenings in dreary November,
And my sisters and cousins
Come listening by dozens,
To songs they can learn and remember.
No nightingale I,
Yet when light's in the sky
It seems to go through me and through me
Till I'm overflowing
With music, scarce knowing
What wonder is happening to me.
Oh, Spring-time is sweet,
When loving birds meet,
But Autumn's the season for singing,
When all the dear swallows
Come out from the hollows,
And over the ocean are winging.
We stay where we are,
While they voyage afar,
But the parting leaves us tender-hearted,
And we sing the more clearly
Of those we love dearly
When scores of our friends have departed.