Between Corbyknowe and the Horn, on whose sides David Barclay had a right of pasturage for the few sheep to which Steenie and Snootie were the shepherds, was a small glen, through which, on its way to join the little river with the kelpie-pot, ran a brook, along whose banks lay two narrow breadths of nice grass. The brother and sister always crossed this brook when they wanted to go straight to the top of the hill. One morning, having each taken the necessary run and jump, they had began to climb on the other side, when Kirsty, who was a few paces before him, turned at an exclamation from Steenie. ‘It’s a’ the weicht o’ my muckle feet!’ he cried, as he dragged one of the troublesome members out of a hole. ‘Losh, I dinna ken hoo far it michtna hae gane doon gien I hadna gotten a haud o’ ’t in time and pu’d it oot!’ How much of humour, how much of silliness, and how much of truth were wrapt up together in some of the things he said, it was impossible to determine. I believe Kirsty came pretty near knowing, but even she was not always sure where wilful oddity and where misapprehension was at the root of a remark. ‘Gien ye set yer fit upon a hole,’ said Kirsty, ‘what can the puir thing du but gang doon intil ’t? Ye maunna be oonrizzonable wi’ the craturs, Steenie! Ye maun be fair til them.’ ‘But there was nae hole!’ returned Steenie. ‘There cudna hae been. There’s the hole noo! My fit made it, and there it’ll hae to bide! It’s a some fearsome thing, divna ye think, ’at what aiven the fit o’ a body dis, bides? What for disna the hole gang awa whan the fit lifts? Luik ye there! Ye see thae twa stanes stan’in up by themsels, and there’s the hole--atween the twa! There cudna hae been a hole there afore the weicht o’ my fit cam doon upo’ the spot and ca’d it throuw! I gaed in maist til my knee!’ ‘Lat’s luik!’ said Kirsty, and proceeded to examine the place. She thought at first it must be the burrow of some animal, but the similarity in shape of the projecting stones suggesting that their position might not be fortuitous, she would look a little farther, and began to pull away the heather about the mouth of the opening. Steenie set himself, with might and main, to help her. Kirsty was much the stronger of the two, but Steenie always did his best to second her in anything that required exertion.