THE GOLD OF FAIRNILEE. 289

 

 

CHAPTER X.
Out of Fairpland.

OU may fancy, if you can, what joy there

oe was in Fairnilee when Randal came
home. They quite forgot the hunger

and the hard times, and the old nurse

; laughed and cried over her bairn that
had grown into a tall, strong young man.

And to Lady Ker it was all one as if her
husband had come again, as he was when first
she knew him long ago; for Randal had his
face, and his eyes, and the very sound of his
voice. They could hardly believe he was not a
spirit, and they clasped his hands, and hung
on his neck, and could not keep their eyes off
him. This was the end of all their sorrow,
and it was as if Randal had come back from
the dead; so that no people in the world were
ever so happy as they were next day, when the
sun shone down on the Tweed and the green
trees that rustle in the wind round Fairnilee.
But in the evening, when the old nurse was
out of the way, Randal sat between his mother
and Jean, and they each held his hands, as if
they could not let him go, for fear he should