When he woke from what seemed a dreamless sleep, his half roused senses were the same moment called upon to render him account of something very extraordinary which they could not themselves immediately lay hold of. Though the sun was yet some distance above the horizon, it was to him behind one of the hills, as he lay with his head low in the grass; and what could the strange thing be which he saw on the crest of the height before him, on the other side of the water? Was it a fire in a grate, thinned away by the sunlight? How could there be a grate where there was neither house nor wall? Even in heraldry the combination he beheld would have been a strange one. There stood in fact a frightful-looking creature half consumed in light--yet a pale light, seemingly not strong enough to burn. It could not be a phoenix, for he saw no wings, and thought he saw four legs. Suddenly he burst out laughing, and laughed that the hills echoed. His sleep-blinded eyes had at length found their focus and clarity. “I see!” he said, “I see what it is! It’s Jeames Gracie’s coo ’at’s been loupin’ ower the mune, an’s stucken upo’ ’t!” In very truth there was the moon between the legs of the cow! She did not remain there long however, but was soon on the cow’s back, as she crept up and up in the face of the sun. He bethought him of a couplet that Grizzie had taught him when he was a child: Whan the coo loups ower the mune, The reid gowd rains intil men’s shune. And in after-life he thought not unfrequently of this odd vision he had had. Often, when, having imagined he had solved some difficulty of faith or action, presently the same would return in a new shape, as if it had but taken the time necessary to change its garment, he would say to himself with a sigh, “The coo’s no ower the mune yet!” and set himself afresh to the task of shaping a handle on the infinite small enough for a finite to lay hold of. Grizzie, who was out looking for him, heard the roar of his laughter, and, guided by the sound, spied him where he lay. He heard her footsteps, but never stirred till he saw her looking down upon him like a benevolent gnome that had found a friendless mortal asleep on ground of danger. “Eh, Cosmo, laddie, ye’ll get yer deid o’ caul’!” she cried. “An’ preserve ’s a’! what set ye lauchin’ in sic a fearsome fashion as yon? Ye’re surely no fey!” “Na, I’m no fey, Grizzie! Ye wad hae lauchen yersel’ to see Jeames Gracie’s coo wi’ the mune atween the hin’ an’ the fore legs o’ her. It was terrible funny.” “Hoots! I see naething to lauch at i’ that. The puir coo cudna help whaur the mune wad gang. The haivenly boadies is no to be restricket.” Again Cosmo burst into a great laugh, and this time Grizzie, seriously alarmed lest he should be in reality _fey_, grew angry, and seizing hold of him by the arm, pulled lustily. “Get up, I tell ye!” she cried. “Here’s the laird speirin’ what’s come o’ ye, ’at ye come na hame to yer tay.”