In effect we soon came out upon a wider valley, and presently drew up at the door of a small cottage—the same we had seen from the top of the hill. Alick whistled once or twice. The door was opened by a decent-looking woman, with a tartan screen cast over her white mutch. "Eh! Wha' is this?" said the old woman, who I fancy, might not be unused to untimely visitors. "Man Alick, is this you? And wha' are these." "Whist, whist, Tibbie! It's just myself, and these are two, young leddies, that I am guiding to my auld leddy at Thornyhaugh, and you must just give them the best you ha' for them. Best tell her the truth, mem," he whispered to me. "She will do all the better for us." "That will I, that will I!" said old Tibbie, cheerfully. "Come in, by leddies! Come in by, and sit upon the fire. It is but a coorse night for, the likes of you to be out. Eh, the bonnie doo!" she exclaimed, as she removed Amabel's plaid. "Wha could ha' the heart to hurt such a winsome creature? But I'll no fash you with questions. Come in by, and sit upon the fire." She led us into the cottage, where a great fire of turf, made on the earthen floor, threw out a glow which seemed something miraculous to us poor night wanderers. Tibbie set stools for us, removed our wet plaids and riding-skirts, and in a wonderfully short time, put into our hands basins of warm milk and generous pieces of freshly toasted oatcake. "Eat and drink, eat and drink!" said she. "That will warm you best of a'." "Do try to eat something, Amabel!" said I, seeing that she held her basin of milk in her hand, as if she hardly knew what it was. "Do try dear, to please me." I held the basin to her lips, and had the satisfaction to see her drink. Then, as if roused and refreshed, she looked about her and spoke. "Lucy, why do we not go on to my aunt's?" "Because the horses must rest, my bonnie leddy!" said Alick, answering the question. "The puir beasts cannot gang a fit farther, without rest and meat, and we will be none the waur of them our ain selves." "But they will overtake us and find us here!" said Amabel. "I am sure they will. They will track us with the bloodhounds." "Not they!" I answered. "They have not missed us yet, and when they do they would not know which way to go. The snow will have covered all trace of us." "And that's true, mem! Believe me, there is nothing to dread; you are as safe here as if you were at Thornyhaugh." "I daresay you are right!" said Amabel. "But I am bewildered I think. Oh, Lucy! It seems as though it must be a dream; I have dreamed of getting away so often. It seems as if I must wake and find myself still in that woman's power. But I will never go back to her!" she added wildly. "I will kill myself first." "You must just get her to bed, poor lamb!" said old Tibbie, answering my look of alarm. "The poor bairn is just overdone with a' she has come thro'! Shame on them that brought a sweet lamb to such straits."