so sure of
him, will take care of you: do not be afraid."

He turned and went; he could no longer bear the look of her eyes.

CHAPTER LXXI.

GLASHGAR.

Out of Arctura's sight Donal had his turn of so-called weakness!

The day was a glorious one, and Davie, full of spirits, could not
understand why he seemed so unlike himself.

"Arkie would scold you, Mr. Grant!" he said.

Donal avoided the town, and walked a long way round to get into the
road beyond it, his head bent as if he were pondering a pain. At
moments he felt as if he must return at once, and refuse to leave the
castle for any reason. But he could not see that it was the will of God
he should do so. A presentiment is not a command. A prophecy may fail
of the least indication of duty. Hamlet defying augury is the
consistent religious man Shakspere takes pains to show him. A
presentiment may be true, may be from God himself, yet involve no
reason why a man should change his way, should turn a step aside from
the path before him. St. Paul received warning after warning on his
road to Jerusalem that bonds and imprisonment awaited him, and these
warnings he knew came from the spirit of prophecy, but he heeded them
only to set his face like a flint. He knew better than imagine duty
determined by consequences, or take foresight for direction. There is a
higher guide, and he followed that. So did Donal now. Moved to go back,
he did not go back--neither afterwards repented that he did not.

I will not describe the journey. Suffice it to say that, after a few
days of such walking as befitted an unaccustomed boy, they climbed the
last hill, crossed the threshold of Robert Grant's cottage, and were
both clasped in the embrace of Janet. For Davie rushed into the arms of
Donal's mother, and she took him to the same heart to which she had
taken wee sir Gibbie: the bosom of the peasant woman was indeed one to
fee to.

Then followed delights which more than equalled the expectations of
Davie. One of them was seeing how Donal was loved. Another was a new
sense of freedom: he had never imagined such liberty as he now enjoyed.
It was as if God were giving it to him, fresh out of his sky, his
mountains, his winds. Then there was the twilight on the hill-side,
with the sheep growing dusky around him; when Donal would talk about
the shepherd of the human sheep; and hearing him Davie felt not only
that there was once, but that there is now a man altogether lovely--th