’Will you give me a drop of hot cider? I am chilled. Have you a potato sack I can cast over my shoulders? The dew falls heavily.’ ’No sign of the dog yet?’ ’None at all. The sheep are browsing at ease. It is dull work standing at a gate watching them. I wish the dog would come.’ ’Let us change places, Larry. You come by the fire and I will watch at the gate. The moment that I see him I will give warning.’ ’And scare him away! No, Honor, I want the prize-money.’ ’Then I will come out and keep you company. Here are two potato sacks, one for your shoulders, the other for mine. If we talk in a low tone we shall not warn off the dog.’ ’That is well, Honor. So we shall make the hours spin. The moon is shining brightly. There have been clouds, and then the dew did not fall as cold and chill. I have been hearkening to the owls, what a screeching and a hooting they make, and there is one in the apple-tree snoring like my father.’ ’Have you been standing all the while, Larry?’ ’Yes, Honor, leaning against the gate. If there had been anything to sit on I should have seated myself. My fingers are numb. I must thaw them at your coals.’ He went to the fire and held his hands in the glow. ’Honor!’ he said, ’you have been crying. I see the glitter of the tears on your cheeks.’ ’Yes, I have been crying—not much.’ ’What made you cry?’ ’Girl’s troubles,’ she answered. ’Girl’s troubles! What are they?’ ’Little matters to those they do not concern. Here is a low stool on which the children sit by the heart. I will take it out and set it under the hedge. We can sit on it and talk together awaiting the dog.’ ’What is the time, Honor? Is the clock right? Eleven! I will wait till after midnight and then go. He will not come to-night if he does not come before that. He will have gone hunting elsewhere. Perhaps he remembers that you scared him last night.’ Honor carried out a low bench, and placed it near the gate under the hedge where a thorn tree overhung. ’We shall do well here,’ said Hillary. ’The dog will not see us, and we shall know he is in the field by the fright of the sheep.’ He seated himself on the bench and Honor did the same, at a distance from him—as far away as the bench permitted. She had thrown the potato sack over her head, and wore it as a hood; it covered her shoulders as well, and shaded her face. The dew was falling heavily, the meadow in the moon was white with it, as though frosted, and through the white sprinkled grass went dark tracks, as furrows, where the sheep had trodden and dispersed the sparkling drops. ’Do you hear the owls?’ asked Larry. ’I’ve heard there are three which are seen every night fleeting over Wellon’s Cairn, and that they are the souls of the three women Wellon killed. I’ve never been there at night, have you, Honor?’ ’No, I do not go about at night.’