old are you, Aggy?" asked Milly when he was gone.

"Sixteen last birthday," returned the girl.

"Ah! how I wish I was sixteen again!" said Milly, with a profound sigh,
as she gazed over the rim of a tartlet she happened to be eating, at the
glittering sea and the far-off horizon. She was evidently recalling
some very sad and ancient memories.

"Why?" asked her companion, who exhibited a very slight tendency to
laugh.

"Because I was so light-hearted and happy at that age."

"How old are you now, Miss Milly?" asked Aggy, in a tone of increased
respect.

"Nineteen," replied the other with a sigh.

Again Aggy's pretty round face was rippled by a suppressed giggle, and
it is highly probable that she would have given way altogether if Junkie
had not returned at the moment and rescued her.

"Here's the water, Milly. Now, Aggy, have you had enough?"

"Yes, quite enough," laughed the highly convalescent invalid.

"Well, then, come along wi' me and I'll show you the place where Cousin
Milly fell down. You needn't come, Milly. I want to show it to Aggy
all by herself, an' we won't be long away."

"Very well, Junkie, as you please. I daresay I shall manage to pass the
time pleasantly enough till you return."

She leant back on a thick heather bush as she spoke, and indulged
herself in that most enjoyable and restful of occupations, on a bright
warm day, namely, looking straight up into the sunny sky and
contemplating the soft fleecy clouds that float there, changing their
forms slowly but continually.

Now it so happened that John Barret, in his botanical wanderings about
the Eagle Cliff, in quest of the "rare specimens" that Milly loved,
discovered Milly herself! This was not such a matter-of-course
discovery as the reader may suppose, for the Eagle Cliff occupied a vast
space of the mountain-side, among the rugged ramparts and knolls of
which several persons might have wandered for hours without much chance
of observing each other, unless they were to shout or discharge the
echo-disturbing gun.

Whether it was the mysterious attraction or the occult discernment of
love that drew him, we cannot tell, but certain it is that when Barret,
standing on the upper edge of the cliff, glanced from the eagle--which
was watching him suspiciously--downward to the base of the cliff, where
the sheep appeared like little buff spots on the green grass, his
startled eyes alighted on Milly, lying on her back, contemplating t