Here and there a thin crop was growing in patches amongst them, the red grey stone lifting its baldness in spots numberless through the soft waving green.

A few of the commonest flowers grew about the door, but there was no garden.

The door-step was live rock, and a huge projecting rock behind formed the back and a portion of one of the end walls.

This latter rock had been the attraction to the site, because of a hollow in it, which now served as a dairy.

For up there with them lived the last cow of the valley--the cow that breathed the loftiest air on all Daurside--a good cow, and gifted in feeding well upon little.