AN INCIDENT. 
11 
stood looking over the landscape, which 
was in all its summer beauty. The' river 
was high.and clear, and ran with a rippling 
sound, which mixed pleasantly with the 
noise of the wind in the woods, the lowing 
of the cattle and all the other country- 
sounds which seem to make the stillness 
only more quiet instead of breaking it. 
Presently, however, other sounds met the 
ear than those of the river and the cattle. 
A clamour of girlish and boyish voices, ac¬ 
companied by the barking of a dog and 
the pitiful mews, or rather squalls, of a 
frightened kitten, caused Miss Winston to 
start, and to hasten, as fast as her lame steps 
could carry her, towards the end of the ter¬ 
race, that she might see from whence the 
sounds proceeded, and where she arrived 
just in time to greet the party who were 
coming round the corner of the house. She 
uttered an exclamation of alarm as they 
met her view. The tallest boy of the party— 
a lad about fifteen years old—came first, 
wet from head to foot, his face bruised, 
dirty and covered with blood, and carrying 
in his arms a little gray and white kitten as 
wet as himself, which was squalling at the 
