CHAPTER X

THE YOUNG OFFICER

It was a fine afternoon when the train ran down from the granite wilds round Cairnsmuir into a broad green valley. Behind, the red heath, strewn with boulders and scarred by watercourses, rolled upward into gathering clouds; in front, yellow stubble fields and smooth meadows lay shining in the light, with a river flashing through their midst. Whitney, watching the scene from a window, thought the change was typical of southern Scotland, which he had found a land of contrasts.

They had left the _Rowan_ where the river mouth opened into a sheltered, hill-girt bay, and walked up a dale that was steeped in quiet pastoral beauty. It led them to a wind-swept tableland, in which lonely, ruffled lakes lay among the stones, and granite outcrops ribbed the desolate heath. There they had caught the train; and now it was running down to well-tilled levels, dotted with trim white houses and marked in the distance by the blue smoke of a town. Andrew had chosen the route to show Whitney the country, and he admitted that it had its charm.

The train slowed down as it approached a station, and when it stopped Dick jumped up.

"I may be able to get a paper here," he said, and leaped down on to the station platform, where shepherds with rough collies, cattle-dealers, and quarrymen stood waiting.

Dick vanished among the crowd; but a few moments later he returned hurriedly, without his paper.

"I nearly ran into old Mackellar!" he exclaimed with a chuckle. "But I dodged him!"

Answer this series of questions:

1. What is the name of the chapter we are discussing?
2. Why did they take the route?
3. Who was showing her?
4. What were they on?
5. Did it slow down?
6. Where?
7. Who got up?
8. Why?
9. Did he leave the train?
10. Where did he go?
11. Was he alone?
12. Who was there?
13. Anyone else?
14. Anyone else?
15. Did he get his paper?
16. Why not?
17. Who?
18. What time of day did they take the train?
19. What country were they in?
20. What body of water did they see?
1. THE YOUNG OFFICER
2. To show Whitney the country.
3. Andrew
4. A train
5. Yes
6. As it approached a station
7. Dick
8. To get a paper.
9. Yes
10. The station platform
11. No
12. Shepherds.
13. Cattle-dealers
14. Quarrymen
15. No
16. He was dodging someone.
17. Old Mackellar
18. In the afternoon.
19. Scotland
20. A river