ose unheeded, the lark sang unheeded, and the roses sparkled with the
dew that bowed yet lower their heavy heads, all unheeded. By the time
they had finished, Mr. Lammie's gig was at the door, and they mounted
and followed the cart. Not even the recurring doubt and fear that
hollowness was at the heart of it all, for that God could not mean such
reinless gladness, prevented the truth of the present joy from sinking
deep into the lad's heart. In his mind he saw a boat moored to a rock,
with no one on board, heaving on the waters of a rising tide, and
waiting to bear him out on the sea of the unknown. The picture arose of
itself: there was no paradise of the west in his imagination, as in that
of a boy of the sixteenth century, to authorize its appearance. It rose
again and again; the dew glittered as if the light were its own; the
sun shone as he had never seen him shine before; the very mare that sped
them along held up her head and stepped out as if she felt it the finest
of mornings. Had she also a future, poor old mare? Might there not be
a paradise somewhere? and if in the furthest star instead of next-door
America, why, so much the more might the Atlantis of the nineteenth
century surpass Manoa the golden of the seventeenth!

The gig and the cart reached the road together. One of the men who had
accompanied the cart took the gig; and they were left on the road-side
with Robert's trunk and box--the latter a present from Miss Lammie.

Their places had been secured, and the guard knew where he had to take
them up. Long before the coach appeared, the notes of his horn, as like
the colour of his red coat as the blindest of men could imagine, came
echoing from the side of the heathery, stony hill under which they
stood, so that Robert turned wondering, as if the chariot of his desires
had been coming over the top of Drumsnaig, to carry him into a heaven
where all labour was delight. But round the corner in front came the
four-in-hand red mail instead. She pulled up gallantly; the wheelers lay
on their hind quarters, and the leaders parted theirs from the pole; the
boxes were hoisted up; Mr. Lammie climbed, and Robert scrambled to his
seat; the horn blew; the coachman spake oracularly; the horses obeyed;
and away went the gorgeous symbol of sovereignty careering through
the submissive region. Nor did Robert's delight abate during the
journey--certainly not when he saw the blue line of the sea in the
distance, a marvel and