UPLAND WATERS When Alice woke next morning the cool upland air was flooding through the window, and a great dazzle of sunlight made the world glorious.

She dressed and ran out to the lawn, then past the loch right to the very edge of the waste country.

A high fragrance of heath and bog-myrtle was in the wind, and the mouth grew cool as after long draughts of spring water.

Mists were crowding in the valleys, each bald mountain top shone like a jewel, and far aloft in the heavens were the white streamers of morn.

Moorhens were plashing at the loch's edge, and one tall heron rose from his early meal.