And the two girls
walked onward to school.
"Well!" ejaculated the captain as he whipped up pony, "well, I
should never have believed it!"
"Believed what, Mr. Gordon?" I asked.
"Why, that such a sweet young girl as that was the daughter of that
villainous Carver Kinlay."
"Ay! Thora's a bonnie lassie," I observed, with more feeling than I
meant the words to convey; "and she's as good as bonnie."
"My lad, thank Heaven that your lucky stone and your splendid
swimming saved you from that dreadful Sound of Hoy."
"I would rather they had saved my father, Mr. Gordon."
"I've no doubt you would, Halcro; but I was thinking of something
else. I was thinking that when you grow older, and when little
Thora--as you name her--is a woman--"
"Tuts! Mr. Gordon," said I, guessing what he would be at. "The
Kinlays and the Ericsons will never be friends."
Thereafter Captain Gordon became very quiet and thoughtful, and
when again he spoke it was about my own sister Jessie. He asked me
many a question concerning her; and if I turned from the subject to
point out some object in the scenery that I thought would interest
him, he was sure to lead me back in some way to talk of Jessie.
We had now passed by the standing stones of Stenness, which my
companion showed but little interest in, saying they were nothing
compared with the Druid circle of Stonehenge, in England; and our
way then lay along a straight uninteresting road past Finstown, and
by the southern shores of the Bay of Firth, where the green holms
of Damsay and Grimbister lay like floating gardens on the calm
water.
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