CHAPTER IV.
THREATENING CLOUDS.
Little Nan would be waiting for him, as well as his supper, and Stephen forgot his weariness as he bounded along the soft turf, to the great discomfiture of the brown-faced sheep, quite as anxious for their supper as he was for his.
Stephen heard far off Snip's sharp, impatient bark, and it made him quicken his steps still more, until, coming within sight of his own Hollow, he stopped suddenly, and his heart beat even more vehemently than when he was running up the hillside.
There was, however, nothing very terrible in the scene.

The hut was safe, and the sun was shining brightly upon the garden, and little Nan was standing as usual at the wicket.

Only in the oat-field, with their faces looking across the green, stood two men in close conversation.

These men were both of them old, and rather thin and shrivelled in figure; their features bore great resemblance to each other, the eyes being small and sunken, with many wrinkles round them, and both mouths much fallen in.
You would have said at once they were brothers; and if you drew near enough to hear their conversation, you would have found your guess was right.
'Brother Thomas,' said the thinnest and sharpest-looking, 'I intend to enclose as far as we can see from this point.

That southern bank will be a first-rate place for young animals.