Her mistress turned upon her with a kind of cold fierceness.
"Is that hoo ye shaw yer regaird to the deid, by brackin' the cheirs he left ahin' him?
Lat sit, an' gang an' luik for that puir, doited thing, Annie.

Gin it had only been the Almichty's will to hae ta'en her, an' left him, honest man!" "Dinna daur to say a word again' the bairn, mem.

The deid'll hear ye, an' no lie still." "Supperstitious quean! Gang an' do as I tell ye this minute.

What business hae ye to gang greetin aboot the hoose?
He was no drap's bluid o' yours!" To this the girl made no reply, but left the room in quest of Annie.
When she reached the door, she stood for a moment on the threshold, and, putting her hand over her eyes, shouted "_Annie_!" But, apparently startled at the sound of her own voice where the unhearing dead had so lately passed, she let the end of the call die away in a quaver, and, without repeating it, set off to find the missing child by the use of her eyes alone.

First she went into the barn, and then through the barn into the stack-yard, and then round the ricks one after another, and then into the corn-loft; but all without avail.