First Journey to Thrums 285

Babbie sank upon a stool, so weak that I doubt
whether she heard me tell her to wait there until
my return. I hurried into Thrums, not by the
hill, though it is the shorter way, but by the
Roods, for I must hear all before I ventured to
approach the manse. From Windyghoul to the
top of the Roods, it is a climb and then a steep
descent. The road has no sooner reached its
highest point than it begins to fall in the straight
line of houses called the Roods, and thus I came
upon a full view of the street at once. A cart
was labouring up it. There were women sitting
on stones at their doors, and girls playing at
palaulays, and out of the house nearest me came
a black figure. My eyes failed me; I was ask-
ing so much from them. They made him tall
and short, and spare and stout, so that I knew
it was Gavin, and yet, looking again, feared, but
all the time, I think, I knew it was he.