Over it passed man after man, each with an ancestral air, while on
the gray sea to the left, galleys covered with Norsemen tore up the
white foam, and dashed one after the other up to the strand. How
long he gazed, he did not know, but when he withdrew his eyes from
the extended scene, there stood the figure of his father, still
trying to open the lid of the bureau, his grandfather resisting him,
the blind piper with his hand on the head of both, and the stately
chief with his hand on the piper's arm. Then a mist of
forgetfulness gathered over the whole, till at last he awoke and
found himself in the little wooden chamber at Bodyfauld, and not in
the visioned room. Doubtless his loss of blood the day before had
something to do with the dream or vision, whichever the reader may
choose to consider it. He rose, and after a good breakfast, found
himself very little the worse, and forgot all about his dream, till
a circumstance which took place not long after recalled it vividly
to his mind.
The enchantment of Bodyfauld soon wore off. The boys had no time to
enter into the full enjoyment of country ways, because of those
weary lessons, over the getting of which Mrs. Falconer kept as
strict a watch as ever; while to Robert the evening journey, his
violin and Miss St. John left at Rothieden, grew more than tame.
The return was almost as happy an event to him as the first going.
Now he could resume his lessons with the soutar.
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