it."

Nor was I mistaken. Just at the gloaming time, while there was still a
little of the yellow hanging in the west, I saw the figure of a woman
with a baby in her arms outlined clear against the sky on the top of
the hill, and by her side trotted the little creature who had all my
heart, leading her home.

"There," said I to Pitcairn, pointing to them, "that's what your
inadequacy at the law has cost me. There are three more people whom
Nancy has fetched home for me to support."

"I wonder at ye sometimes, Jock Stair," he cried at this, "I wonder at
ye!--for in many ways ye seem an intelligent man--that ye can let a
small girl-child have her way with you as ye do."

The outer door closed as he spoke, and I heard the patter of little
feet.

"She's not being raised right. She'll be a creature of no breeding. Ye
should take her----"

At this the door opened and Nancy came in. At the sight of Pitcairn she
stopped on her way toward me, and her black brows came together in an
ecstasy of rage. Putting her little body directly in front of him she
looked him full in the eye.

"Devil!" she said, and walked out of the room, leaving us standing
staring at each other, speechless, and I noted with glee that, on one
occasion at least, I saw Hugh Pitcairn abashed.

This occurrence in the court did not pass in the town unnoticed, for
Bishop Ames, of St. Margaret's, on the following Sunday preached from
the text: "And a little child shall lead them," telling the story from
the pulpit; while the Sentinel of the next week spoke of Nancy with
flattery and tenderness. The publicity given to the affair alarmed me
in no small degree, and I reasoned with myself that a child who had
such fearlessness and such disrespect for established ways was a
problem which somebody wiser than myself should have the handling of.

There were three other occurrences which fell about this time which
brought this thought still more vividly to my mind, the first of these
bringing the knowledge that she had no religion. Entering the hall one
morning I met the little creature coming from the stairway, dragging an
enormous book behind her as though it were a go-cart. She had put a
stout string through the middle of the volume, and with this passed
round her waist was making her way with it toward the library.

"Jock," she said, backing at sight of me and sitting down upon the
great volume as though it were a footstool, "did you ever read a book
called