"I should fill up my room. I like to be able to
move about a little!"

"Ah," replied the old man, "you don't know what a space you have up
here all to yourself! Come this way."

Two turns more up the stair, and they came to another door. It opened
into wide space: from it Donal stepped on a ledge or bartizan, without
any parapet, that ran round the tower, passing above the window of his
room. It was well he had a steady brain, for he found the height
affect him more than that of a precipice on Glashgar: doubtless he
would get used to it, for the old man had stepped out without the
smallest hesitation! Round the tower he followed him.

On the other side a few steps rose to a watch-tower--a sort of ornate
sentry-box in stone, where one might sit and regard with wide vision
the whole country. Avoiding this, another step or two led them to the
roof of the castle--of great stone slabs. A broad passage ran between
the rise of the roof and a battlemented parapet. By this time they came
to a flat roof, on to which they descended by a few steps. Here stood
two rough sheds, with nothing in them.

"There's stowage!" said the old man.

"Yes, indeed!" answered Donal, to whom the idea of his aerie was
growing more and more agreeable. "But would there be no objection to my
using the place for such a purpose?"

"What objection?" returned his guide. "I doubt if a single person but
myself knows it."

"And shall I be allowed to carry up as much as I please?"

"I allow you," said the butler, with importance. "Of course you will
not waste--I am dead against waste! But as to what is needful, use
your freedom.--Dinner will be ready for you in the schoolroom at seven."

At the door of his room the old man left him, and after listening for a
moment to his descending steps, Donal re-entered his chamber.

Why they put him so apart, Donal never asked himself; that he should
have such command of his leisure as this isolation promised him was a
consequence very satisfactory. He proceeded at once to settle himself
in his new quarters. Finding some shelves in a recess of the wall, he
arranged his books upon them, and laid his few clothes in the chest of
drawers beneath. He then got out his writing material, and sat down.

Though his window was so high, the warm pure air came in full of the
aromatic odours rising in the hot sunshine from the young pine trees
far below, and from a lark far above descended news of heaven-gate. Th