The snow was thawing fast, and the meadows on every side lay green in the sunshine.

How full of grace they were! How cruel in her very gladness Nature still seemed to be! Never for an instant did Robbie lose the sense of a great calamity hanging above him, but a sort of stupefaction was creeping over him nevertheless.

He busied himself with reflections on every minor feature of the road.

Had he marked this beech before, or that oak?
Had he seen this gate on his way into Carlisle, or passed through that bar?
A boy on the road was driving a herd of sheep before him.

One drift of the sheep was marked with a red cross, and the other drift with a black patch.