my knowledge!" exclaimed the child; "but that methinks I shall never be, sir, if I should live to be a hundred! Not even when I have read all the books on Master Rhys' shelves," she added musingly. "He is my master," she continued, gaining confidence in the stranger, "and I love him dearly. But his books frighten me, when I see how many there are, and think how much I must learn ere I am fit to be grown-up!" "What standard of knowledge and excellence would you fain reach, ere that desirable period of human existence arrives?" asked the stranger with an amused laugh. But a look of strange solemnity had crept into the dark eyes of his little companion, and it was in a voice of very real seriousness that she answered, speaking more openly to this unknown friend than she had ever yet dared to speak to any one: "Sometimes I think there is something before me--something very far off--which I must needs be ready for, and I must learn a great many things before I shall be ready for it. I cannot guess what it is, but it feels in my heart like a hand always beckoning to me out of a far-off darkness, through which I cannot see." "You are too young to have evil surmisings, warning dreams, and such like," said the fisherman, scrutinising the child's face curiously. "Play while you can, prithee, sweet child, and leave the grown-up time of life to take care of itself. Heaven knows it is no such pleasant time as it would fain show itself through the golden telescope of youthful eyes," he muttered; "but let us e'en look through the telescope as long as we may! Well, Little Miss Primrose, I dearly loved, when a boy, to skim the surface of the fair-flowing Gwynnon in your ancient coracle! Will you grant me a place beside you therein, and beg for me some light refreshment at honest Jack's hands, an I give you my fine salmon in exchange?" "For me, sir?" exclaimed the child, and the anxious look in the dark eyes gave place in a moment to a sparkle of childish joy. "It is too beautiful a present! Yes indeed, I will be proud to row you to our little home, but you must please sit very still, or perchance I may upset you!" The stranger laughed, and handing his fishing-tackle to a serving-man of foreign appearance, who had remained at a little distance, he leaped lightly into the little barque, and talked with boyish enjoyment of his old pastime, as the coracle sped back to the bridge. And Little Miss Primrose chattered merrily in response, puzzling her brains to think who this old friend of her foster-father's might be, whom she herself so dimly recollected. She drew back suddenly, and flushed crimson, when, as they drew to land, Jack came forward with a glad exclamation of surprise, and greeting the stranger with a low reverence, said in tones of delighted astonishment; "Welcome, my lord Bryn Afon! This is indeed an honour you have been pleased to give my Little Miss Primrose!"