There is a higher guide, and he followed that. So did
Donal now. Moved to go back, he did not go back--neither afterwards
repented that he did not.
I will not describe the journey. Suffice it to say that, after a few
days of such walking as befitted an unaccustomed boy, they climbed
the last hill, crossed the threshold of Robert Grant's cottage, and
were both clasped in the embrace of Janet. For Davie rushed into the
arms of Donal's mother, and she took him to the same heart to which
she had taken wee sir Gibbie: the bosom of the peasant woman was
indeed one to fee to.
Then followed delights which more than equalled the expectations of
Davie. One of them was seeing how Donal was loved. Another was a new
sense of freedom: he had never imagined such liberty as he now
enjoyed. It was as if God were giving it to him. fresh out of his
sky, his mountains, his winds. Then there was the twilight on the
hill-side, with the sheep growing dusky around him; when Donal would
talk about the shepherd of the human sheep; and hearing him Davie
felt not only that there was once, but that there is now a man
altogether lovely--the heart of all beauty everywhere--a man who
gave himself up to his perfect father and his father's most
imperfect children, that he might bring his brothers and sisters
home to their father; for all his delight is in his father and his
father's children.
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