thful man, saying:

"Peter Whaup, here's a lassie 'at's 'maist frozen to deid wi' cauld.
Will ye tak' her in and lat her stan' by your ingle-neuk, and warm
hersel'?"

"I'll do that, Alec. Come in by, my bairn. What ca' they ye?"

"Annie Anderson."

"Ow, ay! I ken a' aboot ye weel eneuch. Ye can lea' her wi' me, Alec;
I'll luik efter her."

"I maun gang back to my boat, Annie," said Alec, then, apologetically,
"but I'll come in for ye again."

So Annie was left with the smith, of whom she was not the least afraid,
now that she had heard him speak. With his leathern apron, caught up in
both hands, he swept a space on the front of the elevated hearth of the
forge, clear of cinders and dust, and then, having wiped his hands on
the same apron, lifted the girl as tenderly as if she had been a baby,
and set her down on this spot, about a yard from the fire, on a level
with it; and there she sat, in front of the smith, looking at the fire
and the smith and the work he was about, in turns. He asked her a great
many questions about herself and the Bruces, and her former life at
home; and every question he asked he put in a yet kindlier voice.
Sometimes he would stop in the middle of blowing, and lean forward with
his arm on the handle of the bellows, and look full in the child's face
till she had done answering him, with eyes that shone in the firelight
as if the tears would have gathered, but could not for the heat.

"Ay! ay!" he would say, when she had answered him, and resume his
blowing, slowly and dreamily. For this terrible smith's heart was just
like his fire. He was a dreadful fellow for fighting and quarrelling
when he got a drop too much, which was rather too often, if the truth
must be told; but to this little woman-child his ways were as soft and
tender as a woman's: he could burn or warm.

"An' sae ye likit bein' at the ferm best?" he said.

"Ay. But ye see my father deid--"

"I ken that, my bairn. The Lord haud a grip o' ye!"

It was not often that Peter Whaup indulged in a pious ejaculation. But
this was a genuine one, and may be worth recording for the sake of
Annie's answer:

"I'm thinkin' he hauds a grip o' us a', Mr Whaup."

And then she told him the story about the rats and the cat; for hardly
a day passed just at this time without her not merely recalling it, but
reflecting upon it. And the smith drew the back of his hand across both
his eyes when she had done, and then pressed them both hard