And indeed it came not far from being that as it was, for we could eat but little. The finest of muirland fare seemed somehow or other to stick by the way, tasting strangely dry and sapless. And after we had done we drew apart and looked at the red ashes, while my mother rattled on about the simple concerns of the sheep and the calves, which mountain-bred folk vastly love both to speak of and to hear about. Presently she leaned over me and took down the burnt Bible out of the wall aumry. ’Here, Launce,’ she said, ’read you the chapter this night ere ye sleep. It becomes a man wedded and the head of a family. Besides, your father is from home.’ I declare I would sooner have charged upon the level spears. But I had no choice with my mother, speaking as she did when I was a boy, and my Nell sitting there crossing her pretty ankles by the fireside. So I manned to read a portion. It was about Jonathan clambering up a rock (and a good soldier he was). But the prayer fairly beat me. However, ere we rose from our knees we said the Lord’s prayer all of us together. So to rest we went, without other word spoken. And through the little window of the room in which I was born, Nell and I could hear, ere we went to sleep, the brattle of the burn hurrying down through the peace of the hills, past our own new house of Palgowan and so on toward the silence of the outermost sea. THE END COLSTONS LIMITED, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. * * * * * * * * _*STORIES BY S. R. CROCKETT.*_ THE STICKIT MINISTER. Illustrated Edition. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 6/-. Cheap Edition (unillustrated). Cloth, 2/8. Also Cr. 8vo, cloth, 1/- net. In paper cover, 6d. THE LILAC SUNBONNET. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6/-. Also (Adelphi Library), 3/6. In paper cover, 1/- net. THE RAIDERS. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 6/-. Also (Adelphi Library), 3/6. In paper cover, 1/- net. THE GREY MAN. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 6/-. In paper cover, 1/- net. Also an _Edition de Luxe_. Cr. 4vo, cloth, 21/- net. CINDERELLA. With 8 illustrations. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 6/-. KIT KENNEDY: COUNTRY BOY. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 6/-. ME AND MYN. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 6/-. THE PLAY-ACTRESS AND MAD SIR UCHTRED. With a new Preface. Cr. 8vo, cloth, 2/6. LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN.