"You know, I've been over to Gosforth--it's a long ride--I borrowed Jackson's pony from Armboth; and what a wild country it is, to be sure! It blew a gale on Stye Head.

It's bleak enough up there on a day like this, mother.

I could scarce hold the horse." "I don't wonder, Ralph; but see, here's thy poddish--thou must be fair clemm'd." "No, no; I called at Broom Hill." "How did you come in at the back, lad?
Do you not come up the lonnin ?" "I thought I'd go round by the low meadow and see all safe, and then the nearest way home was on the hill side, you know." Willy and Rotha glanced simultaneously at Ralph as he said this, but they found nothing in his face, voice, or manner to indicate that his words were intended to conceal the truth.
"But look how late it is!" he said as the clock struck twelve; "hadn't we better go off to bed, all of us ?" "I think I must surely go off," said Mrs.Ray, and with Rotha she left the kitchen.

Willy soon followed them, leaving Ralph to eat his supper alone.

Laddie, who had entered with his master, was lying by the smouldering fire, and after the one had finished eating, the other came in for his liberal share of the plain meal.