Like triangles their summits stood out against the pale blue, moon-diluted air.

They were treasure-caves, hollowed out of space, and stored with the best of ammunition against the armies of hunger and want; but Gibbie, though he had seen many of them, did not know what they were.

He had seen straw used for the bedding of cattle and horses, and supposed that the chief end of such ricks.

Nor had he any clear idea that the cattle themselves were kept for any other object than to make them comfortable and happy.

He had stood behind their houses in the dark, and heard them munching and grinding away even in the night.