He began to mount again, but the two
girls hung back and said, ' Nay, David,
dunna go higher; we are both afreed; ' and
Jane added, ' It's a long wee from hom, I 'm
sure.'

' And those birds screechen' so up there; I
darna go up,' added little Nancy. They
were the hawks that she meant, which hovered
whimpering and screaming about the highest
cliffs. David called them little cowards, but
began to descend and, presently, seeking for
berries and flowers as they descended, they
regained the little winding, craggy road, and,
while they were calling to each other,
discovered a remarkable echo on the opposite
hill side. On this, they shouted to it, and
laughed, and were half frightened when it
laughed and shouted again. Little Nancy
said it must be an old man in the inside
of the mountain; at which they were all
really afraid, though David put on a big
look, and said, 'Nonsense! it was nothing
at all.' But Jane asked how nothing at
all could shout and laugh as it did? and
on this little Nancy plucked her again by
the frock, and said in turn, ' Oh, dear, let's
go hom! '

But at this David gave a wild whoop to
frighten them, and when the hill whooped
again, and the sisters began to run, he burst
into laughter, and the strange spectral Ha!
ha! ha! that ran along the inside of the hill
as it were, completed their fear, and they
stopped their ears with their hands and
scuttled away down the hill. But now
David seized them, and pulling their hands
down from their heads, he said, ' See here!
what a nice place with the stones sticking
out like seats. Why, it's like a little house;
let us stay and play a bit here.' It was a
little hollow in the hill side surrounded by
projecting stones like an amphitheatre. The
sisters were still afraid, but the sight of this
little hollow with its seats of crag had such a
charm for them that they promised David
they would stop awhile, if he would promise
not to shout and awake the echo. David
readily promised this, and so they sat down;
David proposed to keep a school, and cut a
hazel wand from a bush and began to lord it
over his two scholars in a very pompous
manner. The two sisters pretended to be
much afraid, and to read very diligently on
pieces of flat stone which they had picked up.
And then David became a serjeant and was
drilling them for soldiers, and stuck pieces
of fern into their hair for cockades. And
then, soon after, they were sheep, and he was
the shepherd; and he was catching his
flock and going to shear them, and made
so much noise that Jane cried, ' Hold!
there's the echo mocking us.'

At this they all were still. But David
said, ' Pho! never mind the echo; I must
shear my sheep: ' but just as he was seizing
little Nancy to pretend to shear her with
a piece of stick, Jane cried out, ' Look! look!
how black it is coming down the valley there!
There's going to be a dreadful starm; let us
hurry hom! '

David and Nancy both looked up, and
agreed to run as fast down the hill as they
could. But the next moment the driving
storm swept over the hill, and the whole
valley was hid in it. The three children
still hurried on, but it became quite dark,
and they soon lost the track, and were tossed
about by the wind, so that they had difficulty
to keep on their legs. Little Nancy began to
cry, and the three taking hold of each other
endeavoured in silence to make their way
homewards. But presently they all stumbled
over a large stone, and fell some distance
down the hill. They were not hurt, but
much frightened, for they now remembered
the precipices, and were afraid every
minute of going over them. They now strove
to find the track by going up again, but they
could not find it anywhere. Sometimes they
went upwards till they thought they were
quite too far, and then they went downwards
till they were completely bewildered; and
then, like the Babes in the Wood, ' They sate
them down and cried.'

But ere they had sate long, they heard
footsteps, and listened. They certainly
heard them and shouted, but there was
no answer. David shouted, ' Help! fayther!
mother! help! ' but there was no answer.
The wind swept fiercely by; the hawks
whimpered from the high crags, lost in the
darkness of the storm; and the rain fell,
driving along icy cold. Presently, there was
a gleam of light through the clouds; the
hill-side became visible, and through the haze
they saw a tall figure as of an old man
ascending the hill. He appeared to carry two
loads slung from his shoulders by a strap;
a box hanging before, and a bag hanging
at his back. He wound up the hill slowly
and wearily, and presently he stopped and
relieving himself of his load, seated himself
on a piece of crag to rest. Again David
shouted, but there still was no answer. The
old man sate as if no shout had been heard—
immoveable.

' It is a man,' said David, ' and I will mak
him hear; ' and with that he shouted once
more with all his might. But the old man
made no sign of recognition. He did not
even turn his head, but he took off his hat
and began to wipe his brow as if warm with
the ascent.

' What can it be? ' said David in astonishment.
'It is a man, that's sartain. I'll run
and see.'

' Nay, nay! ' shrieked the sisters. ' Don't,
David! don't! It's perhaps the old man
out of the mountain that's been mocking us.
Perhaps,' added Jane, 'he only comes out in
starms and darkness.'

' Stuff! ' said David, 'an echo isn't a man;
it's only our own voices. I 'll see who it is;
and away he darted, spite of the poor girl's