With fresh wonder she scrambled on till the trees began to grow sparser
and an upland valley opened in view. Now the burn was quiet, running in
long shining shallows and falling over little rocks into deep brown
pools where the trout darted. On either side rose the gates of the
valley--two craggy knolls each with a few trees on its face. Beyond was
a green lawnlike place with a great confusion of blue mountains hemmed
around its head. Here, if anywhere, primeval peace had found its
dwelling, and Alice, her eyes bright with pleasure, sat on a green
knoll, too rapt with the sight for word or movement.
Then very slowly, like an epicure lingering at a feast, she walked up
the banks of the burn, now high above a trough of rock, now down in a
green winding hollow. Suddenly she came on the spirits of the place in
the shape of two boys down on their faces groping among the stones of a
pool.
One was very small and tattered, one about sixteen; both were barefoot
and both were wet and excited. "Tam, ye stot, ye've let the muckle yin
aff again," groaned the smaller. "Oh, be canny, man! If we grip him
it'll be the biggest trout that the laird will have in his basket," The
elder boy, who was bearing the heat and burden of the work, could only
groan "Heather!" at intervals. It seemed to be his one exclamation.
Now it happened that the two ragamuffins lifted their eyes and saw to
their amazement a girl walking on the bank above them, a girl who smiled
comrade-like on them and seemed in no way surprised.
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