Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 728, December 8, 1877Various
History
Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 728, December 8, 1877
Various
Periodicals
When John heard his sister's story, he eagerly questioned her whether
she could trace the man's course along the hill or point out the place
where she had seen him stoop. Barbara was uncertain, but volunteered
to accompany her brother and indicate, so far as she could remember,
the spot he was so anxious to find. Hurriedly partaking of the food
his sister had prepared for him, in a very few minutes the two issued
forth to begin the search. They agreed that it would be better to go
to the place where she had been standing when she saw the fugitive, so
that she might have a better idea of where to look. They accordingly
held their way up the valley, and as they were going he told her all
that had passed the night before, and explained how it was that he was
so eager to fall in with the concealed treasure. She, with all the
ready sympathy of a sister, entered into his spirit; and when they
had reached the place where she thought she had been standing, she
proposed that he should go up the hill, and in that way she might be
more able to tell definitely at what distance the man had been out.
The suggestion seemed good, and was immediately carried out; and at
the distance of nearly half a mile from where she was standing, she
signalled him to stop. She immediately ascended, and as soon as she
had reached him the search began in earnest. Sticking his staff in
the ground where he had been standing, he hung his plaid upon it; and
then Barbara and he going out something like fifty yards, and taking
different directions, each described a semicircle with the plaid as
centre, meeting on the opposite side. They continued the process,
narrowing the circle every round, till they had come within five yards
of the plaid; but all to no purpose. The task seemed hopeless, and
they were on the point of abandoning the search in the space they had
inclosed with the first round, when Barbara, with a joyful cry, drew
forth the box from a thick bunch of heather!
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