ters, struck
him silent with admiring wonder. It was a cloudless day; the line of
blue sky melted into the line of blue wave, and the air was filled with
sunlight. At evening they landed, and the coach took them to Ellan. On
the way Eric saw for the first time the strength of the hills, so that
when they reached the town and took possession of their cottage, he was
dumb with the inrush of new and marvellous impressions.

Next morning he was awake early, and jumping out of bed, so as not to
disturb the sleeping Vernon, he drew up the window-blind, and gently
opened the window. A very beautiful scene burst on him, one destined to
be long mingled with all his most vivid reminiscences. It had been too
dark on their arrival the evening before to get any definite impression
of their residence, so that this first glimpse of it filled him with
delighted surprise. Not twenty yards below the garden, in front of the
house, lay Ellan Bay, at that moment rippling with golden laughter in
the fresh breeze of sunrise. On either side of the bay was a bold
headland, the one stretching out in a series of broken crags, the other
terminating in a huge mass of rock, called from its shape The Stack. To
the right lay the town, with its grey old castle, and the mountain
stream running through it into the sea; to the left, high above the
beach, rose the crumbling fragment of a picturesque fort, behind which
towered the lofty buildings of Roslyn School. Eric learnt the whole
landscape by heart, and thought himself a most happy boy to come to such
a place. He fancied that he should never be tired of looking at the
sea, and could not take his eyes off the great buoy that rolled about in
the centre of the bay, and flashed in the sunlight at every move. He
turned round full of hope and spirits, and, after watching for a few
moments the beautiful face of his sleeping brother, awoke him with
boisterous mirth.

"Now, Verny," he cried, as the little boy sprang eagerly out of bed,
"don't look till I tell you," and putting his hands over Vernon's eyes,
he led him to the window. Then he threw up the sash, and embodied all
his sensations in the one word--"There!"

To which apostrophe Vernon, after a long gaze, could make no other
answer than, "Oh, Eric! oh, I say!"

That day Eric was to have his first interview with Dr Rowlands. The
school had already re-opened, and one of the boys passed by the window
while they were breakfasting. He looke