Lady Mary's ten children were at the end of Granton Harbour on the morning when the two students were to meet them. It was a magnificent forenoon, with the light of the sun well shaded by clouds which did not promise to blow hard during the day. But the wind which did blow was towards the west instead of towards the east. It blew inside instead of outside the Firth, and Sandy suggested that if they were to sail safely and comfortably, they could do it better up than out of the Firth. The ten children were pale-faced objects; three of them on crutches; three of them with slings, in which their pinched arms reposed; four of them with bands, belts, or bandages arranged round them. They looked from Sandy to Haco with expectant, anxious faces, as they discussed the wind, and, presently, when Lady Mary came down the pier, from a house where she had been making a visit, they rushed at her as if to a mother, gathered round her in a

group, and lugged her towards Sandy and Haco. They went down a slippery stair to the yacht, and, as the tide was running up and down with a treacherous appearance of green suction, which set the tangles waving, Haco received the children in his arms as Sandy passed them down. It was Haco's inestimable privilege, also, to lift Lady Mary in his arms and to place her on the deck of his own yacht. She felt as if a hero had just rescued her from drowning; he, as if the kind gods had left him nothing better to live for. They drew out of the harbour very rapidly and into the Firth.

It would be pleasanter to go up,' said Haco.

'Up towards Alloa?' said Lady Mary.

Yes.'

Strawfield is not at home. Now that I think

of it, we might do worse than take the children there. We shall get them something nice to eat and drink.'

'What do you say, mate?' asked Haco, looking

from the tiller to the bow.

'Say?'

'Yes.'

'I think we will run up nicely with this wind; and if we're not to hit it off on the Strawfield side, we're sure of a meal on the Binkie side, anyway.'

'Do you mean if the wind is contrary, Mr Baxter ?'

'Just so, my lady.'

'Not that we may not be welcome at Strawfield?'

'I didn't think of that.'

Up the Firth it is,' cried Haco, peremptorily, as he had a right to do, being skipper. Up the Firth it is.'

And Sandy being at the ropes, the yacht swung to the wind and made off in the direction proposed. The children began clapping their hands, and exchanged opinions in that broken tongue

which was, probably, the language of Paradise. The Firth was good to them. It did not tumble them about. It did not sicken them. It did not drench them with spray. The farther they sailed the louder they spoke, and as they came in sight of Strawfield, hours after, Lady Mary, looking at Haco, said,

'You are my brother to-day. You could not have devised anything for me that I could so much have appreciated.'

CHAPTER XI

RECRUITING

THE Spray did her very best after she left Granton Harbour. The breeze was not very strong, but it seemed to have force enough to propel a thousand yachts up the Firth at a great rate. It carried them beyond the Artillery Buoy, Cramond Isle, Queensferry, and distant parts above, till they arrived opposite Lady Mary's brother's place. The children were a little bewildered and shy at first. There was no reason why they should have been so. Each of them

VOL. II

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