Sir Gibbie

narrow, dirty lane, at right angles to an important thoroughfare, itself none of the widest or cleanest. She was dressed

ribbons, which looked as if she had slept in it. Her face must have been handsome when it was young and fresh; but was now beginning to look tattooed, though whether the colour was from without or from within, it would hav

far from their expression, the nature of which, although a certain witchery of confidence was at once discoverable, was not to be determined without the help of the whole face, whose diffused meaning seemed in them to deepen almost to speech. Whatever was at the heart of that expression, it was something that enticed question and might want investigation. The face as well as the eyes was lovely-not very clean, and not too regular for hope of a fine development, but chiefly remarkab

rd, nearly square, upon which was painted in lead-colour on a black ground the words, "Licensed to sell beer, spirits, and tobacco to be drunk on the premises." There was no other sign. "Them 'at likes my whusky 'ill no aye be speerin' my name," said Mistress Croale. As the day went on

he other side of the counter: far gone in consumption, he could not get through the forenoon without his morning. "I wad like," she went on, as she replaced the bottle without having spoken a word to her customer, whos

fore him, whatever footsteps behind, he never lifted his head, but went creeping slowly on his

f two houses, a ray fell upon the pavement and the gutter. It lay there a very type of purity, so pure that, rest where it might, it destroyed every shadow of defilement that sought to mingle with it. Suddenly the boy made a dart upon all fours, and pounced like a creature of prey upon something in the kennel. He had found what he had been looking for so long. He sprang to his feet and bounded with it into the sun, rub

amethyst-coloured glass, and in the sun looked lovely. The boy was in an ecstasy over it. He rubbed it on his sleeve, sucked it to clear it from the last of the gutter, and held it up once more in the sun, where, for a few blissful moments, he contemplated it speechless. He then caused it to disappear somewhere about his garments-I will not venture to say in a pocket-and ran off, his little bare feet sounding thud, thud, thud on the pavement, and

ch of what lay within the houses; but that only added the joy of mystery to possession: they were jewel-closets,

flaky piecrust, known as buns. And the smell that came through the very glass, it seemed to the child, was as that of the tree of life in the Paradise of which he had never heard. But most enticing of all to the eyes of the little wanderer of the street were the penny-loaves, hot smoking from the oven-which fact is our first window into the ordered nature of the child. For the main point which made them more attractive than all the rest to him was, that sometimes he did have a penny, and that a penny loaf was the largest thing that could be had for a penny in the shop. So that, lawless as he looked, the desires of the child were moderate, and his imagination wrought within th

he opaque half of her door. There was no greed in those eyes-only much quiet interest. He did not want to get in; had to wait, and while waiting beguiled the time by beholding. He knew that Mysie, the baker's daughter, was at school, and that she would be home within half an hour. He had seen he

ty and a touch of indignation at being impede

e hid in the recesses of his rags. A look of anxiety once appeared, but the same moment it vanished, and he he

, wee Gibbie!" she crie

kennel, and drew b

ly, and pressing down the thu

r, somewhat severely, but without lifting her eyes from h

ither," answered the gir

he mother, "he's no l

taken advantage of. "He's no fit company for the likes o' you, 'at his a father a

gh they say he never hid n

laugh. "Na, but he's something to mak mention o'! Sic a father, l

uil i' the mornin', an' he fan't till me, an' was at the chopd

d the mother,-"for ane, that is,

of bread, composed of many adhering penny-

d as she opened it; "her

seen. A sandboy with a donkey cart was the sole human arrangement in i