, Alec had the first
word.

"Mamma!" he said, "I found her sleeping in my snow hut there; and if I
had not brought her in, she would have been dead by this time."

"Poor little darling!" thought Mrs Forbes; but she was Scotch, and
therefore she did not say it. But she stooped, and drew the child back
from the fire, lest she should have her face scorched, and after making
the tea, proceeded to put off her bonnet and shawl. By the time she had
got rid of them, Annie was beginning to move, and Alec rose to go to
her.

"Let her alone," said his mother. "Let her come to herself by degrees.
Come to the table."

Alec obeyed. They could see that Annie had opened her eyes, and lay
staring at the fire. What was she thinking about? She had fallen asleep
in the snow-hut, and here she was by a bright fire!

"Annie, dear, come to your tea," were the first words she heard. She
rose and went, and sat down at the table with a smile, taking it all as
the gift of God, or a good dream, and never asking how she had come to
be so happy.

CHAPTER XX.

The spirit of mischief had never been so thoroughly aroused in the
youth of Glamerton as it was this winter. The snow lay very deep, while
almost every day a fresh fall added to its depth, and this rendered
some of their winter-amusements impossible; while not many of them had
the imagination of Alec Forbes to suggest new ones. At the same time
the cold increased, and strengthened their impulses to muscular
exertion.

"Thae loons are jist growin' perfect deevils," said Charlie Chapman,
the wool-carder, as he bolted into his own shop, with the remains of a
snowball melting down the back of his neck. "We maun hae anither
constable to haud them in order."

The existing force was composed of one long-legged, short-bodied,
middle-aged man, who was so slow in his motions, apparently from the
weight of his feet, which were always dragging behind him, that the
boys called him Stumpin' Steenie (dim. for "Stephen"), and stood in no
more awe of him than they did of his old cow--which, her owner being a
widower, they called _Mrs Stephen_--when she went up the street, hardly
able to waddle along for the weight of her udder. So there was some
little ground for the wool-carder's remark. How much a second constable
would have availed, however, is doubtful.

"I never saw sic widdiefows!" (gallows-birds), chimed in a farmer's
wife who was standing in the shop. "They had a tow across the