FRIENDSHIP AND COURTSHIP. 



the mansion, round which clustered so many memories of 

 merriment and study. 



It was now getting so late that they were obliged to 

 retrace their steps. After recrossing the bridge of Don* 

 they ascended the hill above it, and looked back upon the 

 wide-spreading Vale below them, under the mild sunset 

 light. They then took a short cut homewards under John's 

 guidance, who knew every foot of the way. They passed 

 the ancient fort of the Barmiken of Keig,* catching a parting 

 glimpse of the hollow of Tullynessle and Muckletown, 

 where John had lived, and descended the hill to the north 

 straight for Leithhall. By the time they reached the Gadie, 

 it was quite dark, and they had to cross it on a plank, 

 crawling after each other in the gloom on hands and knees. 

 Then they parted, Charles to go to his home at Kinneth- 

 mont, and John to walk down the Gadie side to Auchleven. 

 It was a delightful day, full of the beauty of the present, the 

 poetry of the past, and the hopes of the future. 



They little thought it was their last journey together, 

 but so it turned out to be. During the next thirty years 

 in which they both wandered down the vale of life, they 

 saw each other only twice. Charles has never been in the 

 Howe of Alford since. They continued to correspond to 

 the last, though, from their imperfect use of the pen, that 

 was seldomer than their hearts prompted ; but they never 

 ceased to cherish towards each other that beautiful love 

 which had blessed and united them so closely in the years 

 gone by. 



* See this described in Miss Maclagan's "Hill Forts, Stone 

 Circles, etc., of Ancient Scotland ;" as also those on Benachie, Dunni- 

 deer, Tap o' Noth, and other places (with very good plans and sketches), 

 mentioned in this history. 



