He had already that day, through him, enjoyed a longer spell of his book, than any day since he had been herd at the Mains of Glashruach.

And now the desire had come to regard him more closely.
For a minute or two he sat and gazed at him.

Gibbie gazed at him in return, and in his eyes the herd-boy looked the very type of power and gentleness.

How he admired even his suit of small-ribbed, greenish-coloured corduroy, the ribs much rubbed and obliterated! Then his jacket had round brass buttons! his trousers had patches instead of holes at the knees! their short legs revealed warm woollen stockings! and his shoes had their soles full of great broad-headed iron tacks! while on his head he had a small round blue bonnet with a red tuft! The little outcast, on the other hand, with his loving face and pure clear eyes, bidding fair to be naked altogether before long, woke in Donal a divine pity, a tenderness like that nestling at the heart of womanhood.

The neglected creature could surely have no mother to shield him from frost and wind and rain.