280 THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE.

 

soup, and digging for roots that were often
little better than poison. They ground the
bark of the fir trees, and mixed it with the little
flour they could get; and they ate such beasts
as never are eaten except in time of famine.

It is said that one very poor woman and her
daughter always looked healthy and plump in
these dreadful times, till people began to suspect
them of being witches. And they were taken,
and charged before the Sheriff with living by
witchcraft, and very likely they would have
been burned. So they confessed that they had
fed ever since the famine began—on snails!
But there were not snails enough for all the
country-side, even if people had cared to eat
them. So many men and women died, and
more were very weak and ill.

Lady Ker spent all her money in buying food
for her people. Jean and she lived on as little
as they could, and were as careful as they could
be. They sold all the beautiful silver plate,
except the cup that Randal’s father used to
drink out of long ago. But almost everything
else was sold to buy corn.

So the weary year went on, and Midsummer
Night came round—the seventh since the night
when Randal was lost.

Then Jean did what she had always meant
to do. In the afternoon she slipped out of the
house. of Fairnilee, taking a little bread in a
basket, and saying that she would go to see the