rainy sense left, Jeamie. But I'm awfu' tired. Ye maun jist
turn yer cairt and tak' me hame. I'll be worth a lade o' coal to my
mither ony gait. An' syne ye can brak it till her."

Without another word, Dow turned his horse, helped Alec into the cart,
covered him with his coat and some straw, and strode away beside, not
knowing whether he was walking in a dream, or in a real starry night.
Alec fell fast asleep, and never waked till the cart stood still, about
midnight, at his mother's door. He started up.

"Lie still, Mr Alec," said Dow, in a whisper. "The mistress 'll be in
her bed. And gin ye gang in upo' her that gait, ye'll drive her daft."

Alec lay down again, and Dow went to Mary's window, on the other side,
to try to wake her. But just as he returned, Alec heard his mother's
window open.

"Who's there?" she called.

"Naebody but me, Jeamie Doo," answered James. "I was half-gaits to
Portlokie, whan I had a mishap upo' the road. Bettie pat her fit upon a
sharp stane, and fell doon, and bruik baith her legs."

"How did she come home then?"

"She bude to come hame, mem."

"Broke her legs!"

"Hoot, mem--her k-nees. I dinna mean the banes, ye ken, mem; only the
skin. But she wasna fit to gang on. And sae I brocht her back."

"What's that i' the cairt? Is't onything deid?"

"Na, mem, de'il a bit o' 't! It's livin' eneuch. It's a stranger lad
that I gae a lift till upo' the road. He's fell tired."

But Dow's voice trembled, or--or something or other revealed all to the
mother's heart. She gave a great cry. Alec sprung from the cart, rushed
into the house, and was in his mother's arms.

Annie was asleep in the next room, but she half awoke with a sense of
his presence. She had heard his voice through the folds of sleep. And
she thought she was lying on the rug before the dining-room fire, with
Alec and his mother at the tea-table, as on that night when he brought
her in from the snow-hut. Finding out confusedly that the supposition
did not correspond with some other vague consciousness, she supposed
next that she "had died in sleep and was a blessed ghost," just going
to find Alec in heaven. That was abandoned in its turn, and all at once
she knew that she was in her own bed, and that Alec and his mother were
talking in the next room.

She rose, but could hardly dress herself for trembling. When she was
dressed she sat down on the edge of the bed to bethink herself.

The joy was almost torture, but it h