"But what was oor astonishment to see him rise up wi' the bairns baith in his ae arm, and gie his back a bit dust wi' the back o' the ither as if he had been dustin' flour off it. "'Is there ocht broken, think ye, Geordie?' Muckle Alick cried anxiously to the engine-driver. "'Guid life, Alick, are ye no killed?' said the engine-driver. And, loupin' frae his engine, Geordie ran doon, if ye will believe it, greeting like a very bairn. And, 'deed, to tell the truth, so was the maist feck o' us. "'Killed?' says Alick; 'weel, no that I ken o'!' "And he stepped across the rails wi' the twa weans laughin' in his airms, for a' bairns are fond o' Alick. And says he, 'I think I'll pit them in the left luggage office till we get the express cleared.' So he did that, and gied them his big turnip watch to play wi'. And syne he took the luggage over and cried the name o' the station, as if he had done nocht that day forbye eat his denner. "Then there cam' a lassie rinnin' wi' a loaf in her airms, and lookin' every road for something. "'Did ye see twa bairns? Oh, my wee Hugh, what's come to ye?' she cried. "'Ye'll find them in the luggage office, I'm thinkin', lassie,' says Alick." And here the engine-driver of the goods train rose to depart. But his audience would not permit him. "And what cam' o' the bairns?" cried Cleg, white with anxiety, "and what was their names, can ye tell me?" "Na, I never heard their names, if they had ony," said Duncan Urquhart. "They were but tinkler weans, gaun the country. But Alick could tell ye, nae doot. For I saw him gang doon the street wi' the wee boy in his hand, and the lass carryin' the bairn. An' the folk were a' rinnin' oot o' their doors to shake hands wi' Alick, and askin' him if he wasna sair hurt?" "'Na,' says he; 'I'll maybe a kennin' stiff for a day or twa, but there's nocht serious wrang—except wi' the spring o' the engine buffer! That's gye sair shauchelt!' "And guid nicht to ye a', an' a guid sleep. That's a' I ken," said Duncan Urquhart from the kitchen door, where he was saying good-bye to the cook in a manner calculated to advance materially the interests of his niece, Janet of Inverness. "And I'm gaun the morn's mornin' to see Muckle Alick!" cried Cleg. And he went out with the engine-driver. ADVENTURE XXXI. THE "AWFU' WOMAN." A sore heart had Vara Kavannah as she sat in the hut in Callendar's yard the night her mother had appeared at the gate of Hillside Works. "I can never go back among them—no, never, never!" said Vara to herself again and again. And already she saw the sidelong glance, the sneering word thrown over the shoulder, as the companions from whom she had held herself somewhat aloof reminded her of her mother's disgrace. "O father, father, come back to us—come back to us!" she cried over and over again till it became a prayer.