Chapter 10 - Page 2

laugh.

"Hout fie, bairns!" said the old lady, with something of a good-humoured
reproof, "ye shouldna vex your billy Hobbie that way.--Look round, my
bairn, and see if there isna ane here mair than ye left this morning."

Hobbie looked eagerly round. "There's you, and the three titties."

"There's four of us now, Hobbie, lad," said the youngest, who at this
moment entered.

In an instant Hobbie had in his arms Grace Armstrong, who, with one
of his sister's plaids around her, had passed unnoticed at his first
entrance. "How dared you do this?" said Hobbie.

"It wasna my fault," said Grace, endeavouring to cover her face with her
hands to hide at once her blushes, and escape the storm of hearty kisses
with which her bridegroom punished her simple stratagem,--"It wasna my
fault, Hobbie; ye should kiss Jeanie and the rest o' them, for they hae
the wyte o't."

"And so I will," said Hobbie, and embraced and kissed his sisters
and grandmother a hundred times, while the whole party half-laughed,
half-cried, in the extremity of their joy. "I am the happiest man," said
Hobbie, throwing himself down on a seat, almost exhausted,--"I am the
happiest man in the world!"

"Then, O my dear bairn," said the good old dame, who lost no opportunity
of teaching her lesson of religion at those moments when the heart
was best open to receive it,--"Then, O my son, give praise to Him that
brings smiles out o' tears and joy out o' grief, as He brought light out
o' darkness and the world out o' naething. Was it not my word, that if
ye could say His will be done, ye might hae cause to say His name be
praised?"

"It was--it was your word, grannie; and I do praise Him for His mercy,
and for leaving me a good parent when my ain were gane," said honest
Hobbie, taking her hand, "that puts me in mind to think of Him, baith in
happiness and distress."

There was a solemn pause of one or two minutes employed in the exercise
of mental devotion, which expressed, in purity and sincerity, the
gratitude of the affectionate family to that Providence who had
unexpectedly restored to their embraces the friend whom they had lost.

Hobbie's first enquiries were concerning the adventures which Grace
had undergone. They were told at length, but amounted in substance
to this:--That she was awaked by the noise which the ruffians made in
breaking into the house, and by the resistance made by one or two of the
servants, which was soon overpowered; that, dressing herself hastily,
she ran downstairs, and having seen, in the scuffle, Westburnflat's
vizard drop off, imprudently named