ngs that must be considered."

"Young ladies, eh?" asked Brown with a laugh.

"Oh! didn't he tell that yarn well? It was great. But I'd hate to be
the fellow."

"But you are not fair," replied Shock. "A man can't answer every
appeal. He must think what he is fit for, and, in short, where he is
called to work. There's Lloyd, now--"

"Oh, Lloyd!" broke in Brown impatiently. "He's a quitter."

"Not he. He's anything but that."

"No," owned Brown, "he's not a quitter, but he puts in overtime
thinking of what's good for Lloyd. Of course, I do that sort of thing
myself, but from a fellow like Lloyd one expects something better."

Soon they were at Shock's door.

"Come in," said Shock cordially, "mother will be glad to see you."

And Brown went in.

IV

ONLY ONE CLAIM

It always gave Brown a sense of content to enter the Macgregor cottage.
Even among the thrifty North country folk the widow Macgregor's home,
while not as pretentious as those of the well-to-do farmers, had been
famous as a model of tidy house-keeping. Her present home was a little
cottage of three rooms with the kitchen at the back. The front room
where Mrs. Macgregor received her few visitors, and where Shock did
most of his reading, except when driven to his bedroom by the said
visitors, was lighted by two candles in high, polished, old-fashioned
brass candlesticks, and by the fire from the hearth, which radiated a
peace and comfort which even the shiny hair-cloth chairs and sofa and
the remaining somewhat severe furniture of the room could not chill. It
was the hearth and mantel that had decided Mrs. Macgregor and Shock in
their purchase of the little cottage, which in many eyes was none too
desirable. On the walls hung old-fashioned prints of Robbie Burns and
his Highland Mary, the Queen and the Prince Consort, one or two quaint
family groups, and over the mantel a large portrait of a tall soldier
in full Highland dress. Upon a bracket in a corner stood a glass case
enclosing a wreath of flowers wrought in worsted, and under it in a
frame hung a sampler with the Lord's Prayer similarly wrought. On one
side of the room stood a clock upon a shelf, flanked by the Family
Bible and such books as "The Saint's Rest," "Holy Living," "The
Fourfold State," "Scots Worthies," all ancient and well worn. On the
other side stood a bookcase which was Shock's, and beside it a table
where he did his work. Altogether it was a very plain room, but the
f