mother is crying on me," she said; "let me go, William" (though
indeed I was not touching her).

I was turning away disappointed with no word more, but very suddenly she
snatched my hand which had fallen to my side, pressed it a moment to her
breast, and then fled upstairs like a young roe.

So, laden with wrappings, Sandy and I took our way over the moor, making
our path through our own oakwood, which is the largest in Galloway, and
out by Blawquhairn and Gordiestoun upon the moor of Bogue--a wet and
marshy place, save in the height of the dry season. Sandy was for going
towards a hold that he had near the lonely, wind-swept loch of Knockman,
which lies near the top of a hill of heather and bent. But as we came to
the breast of the Windy Brae, I felt my weakness, and a cold sweat began
to drip from me.

"Sandy," I said to my brother, taking him by the hand lest he should go
too fast for me, "I fear I shall be but a trouble to you. Leave me, I
pray you, at Gordiestoun to take my chance, and hie you to the heather.
It'll maybe no be a hanging matter wi' me at ony gate."

"Hear till him," said Sandy, "leave him! I'll leave the laddie nane. The
man doesna breathe that Sanquhar and Ayrsmoss are no eneuch to draw the
thrapple o', were it my Lord Chancellor himsel'!"

He bent and took me on his back. "There na, is that comfortable?" he
said; and away he strode with me as though he had been a giant.

"Man, ye need mony a bow o' meal to your ribs," he cried, making light
of the load. "Ye are no heavier than a lamb in the poke-neuk o' a
plaid."

I think he was sorry for stirring me from the well-chamber, and the
thought of his kindness made me like him better than I had manned to do
for some time.

And indeed my weight seemed no more to him, than that of a motherless
suckling to a shepherd on the hill, when he steps homeward at the close
of the day. It is a great thing to be strong. If only Sandy had
possessed the knack of gentleness with it, he would have been a great
man. As it was, he was only the Bull of Earlstoun.

We kept in our flight over the benty fell towards Milnmark, but holding
more down to the right towards the Garpel burn where there are many dens
and fastnesses, and where the Covenant folk had often companied
together.

I was afraid to think what should come to my sickness, when the cold
shelves of the rock by the Dass of the Holy Linn would be my bed,
instead of the comfortable blankets of the well-h