od. But Donal got weary of the time it took, and set himself to find
a quicker way. So next Saturday afternoon, the rudimentary remnant of
the Jewish Sabbath, and the schoolboy's weekly carnival before Lent, he
directed his walk to a certain fishing village, the nearest on the
coast, about three miles off, and there succeeded in hiring a spare
boat-spar with a block and tackle. The spar he ran out, through a
notch of the battlement, near the sheds, and having stayed it well
back, rove the rope through the block at the peak of it, and lowered it
with a hook at the end. A moment of Davie's help below, and a bucket
filled with coals was on its way up: this part of the roof was over a
yard belonging to the household offices, and Davie filled the bucket
from a heap they had there made. "Stand back, Davie," Donal would cry,
and up would go the bucket, to the ever renewed delight of the boy.
When it reached the block, Donal, by means of a guy, swung the spar on
its but-end, and the bucket came to the roof through the next notch of
the battlement. There he would empty it, and in a moment it would be
down again to be re-filled. When he thought he had enough of coal, he
turned to the wood; and thus they spent an hour of a good many of the
cool evenings of autumn. Davie enjoyed it immensely; and it was no
small thing for a boy delicately nurtured to be helped out of the
feeling that he must have every thing done for him. When after a time
he saw the heap on the roof, he was greatly impressed with the amount
that could be done by little and little. In return Donal told him that
if he worked well through the week, he should every Saturday evening
spend an hour with him by the fire he had thus helped to provide, and
they would then do something together.

After his first visit Donal went again and again to the village: he had
made acquaintance with some of the people, and liked them. There was
one man, however, who, although, attracted by his look despite its
apparent sullenness, he had tried to draw him into conversation, seemed
to avoid, almost to resent his advances. But one day as he was walking
home, Stephen Kennedy overtook him, and saying he was going in his
direction, walked alongside of him--to the pleasure of Donal, who loved
all humanity, and especially the portion of it acquainted with hard
work. He was a middle-sized young fellow, with a slouching walk, but a
well shaped and well set head, and a not uncomely co