"Edmund wonders if sweet Annot Lindsay remembers the pleasant walks and rides, the quiet evenings, and mossy bunks round Graham Hall; he can never forget them, he says, for the linnet that sang those pretty Scotch songs so sweetly is ever haunting his path." Annot listened with downcast face, for she was conscious of remembering them quite as tenderly. "Do you know, Annot, that I have obtained Uncle Malcolm's consent to spare you just one year? you are going with us to Woodcliff; he consents, because he thinks that the journey will be of great use to you, Annot; he wishes you to be one year with my Madeline." "Am I really going!" and she clapped her little hands with delight. "I shall be sae happy;" then speedily changing countenance, "but what will Uncle Malcolm an' dear mother do without me? I fear that they will be sae lonesome." A farewell visit to Aunt Douglass and Elsie Gibson closed their sojourn in Scotland. Pleasant things must have an end. After a few weeks of busy preparation, Annot was ready; and the hitherto happy party were very silent around the breakfast-table, where they met for the last time. The parting hour had arrived; trunks all ready, the farewell blessing given, and the last adieux silently exchanged from full hearts and weeping eyes. Annot threw herself upon the bosom of her mother, then of dear Uncle Malcolm, with a burst of feeling; and was placed silently in the carriage by the side of Madeline, who folded the young girl in her arms, and said, "Be comforted, Annot; you are going with those who love you dearly." "I ken it a', Madeline; but I am leaving the dearest far behind." As they passed the familiar scenes of her daily life she still looked out with weeping eyes. "Farewell, dear Scotland! how bonnie her dark-brown hills appear to me!" A short voyage brought the party to America, and, without delay, to Woodcliff. "There, Annot, is our dear, dear home!" said Madeline, as they drove up the avenue of noble elms. "It is a lovely spot, dear! but how different from Scotland!" Aunt Matilda, Mr. Bruce, and the servants were all in waiting; for the long absence of six months had prepared the way for a warm welcome. Aunt Matilda could never tire of looking at her dear niece, and Mr. Bruce hung upon the arm of his son with the same old reverential love, his voice trembling with joyful emotion. "I hae missed ye day and night, Roland, but I hae done a' that ye told me, an' a' is just as ye wish it."