y sharp. Both Shock and Brown looked at her in surprise.

"Yes, you may look," she went on, "but I say let them that's not needed
here go out yonder, and there will be plenty of them, I warrant."

"'And they'd none of them be missed,'" sang Brown.

"I doubt they wouldn't do," said Shock, shaking his head sadly.

"Well, mother," cried Brown, "you'll have a chance of hearing him
yourself to-morrow morning, for he is going to preach in your church, I
see."

The old lady shrugged her shoulders. "Indeed, and I wish our meenister
wouldn't be so ready with his pulpit for every Bill and Bob that comes
the way. He will not be needing a rest again, will he?"

Shock gazed at his mother in sheer amazement. He had never seen her
like this before. This bitter impatience was so unlike her usual calm,
dignified self-control.

"But mother," he ventured, "the cause will be needing money and the
people will need to hear about it, surely."

"Oh, as to that," she answered in a relieved tone, "it is not much that
we can give, but what we can we will, and, indeed, there are many of
them in that Kirk that would be the better of giving a little of their
money. But, lad," she added as if dismissing a painful subject, "you
must be at your books."

"Which means I must go. I know you, Mother Macgregor," said Brown,
using his pet name for the woman who had for two years been more of a
mother to him than his own.

"Ay, and within a few weeks you will be wishing, as well, that someone
had set you to your books, for the examinators will be upon you."

"And, doubtless, shear me as bare as Delilah did Samson of old. But I
am not promising you I am going to work. My physician warns me against
work on Saturday nights, so I am going to hunt up The Don."

"Indeed then, you will know well where to look for him," said the old
lady shrewdly.

"Ah, mother, you're too sharp for any of us. Not much escapes your
eyes."

"Indeed, one does not require eyes to see some things, and yon laddie
is daft enough."

"Daft's the word," said Brown, "and has been for the last three years.
Is not it astonishing and profoundly humiliating," he added solemnly,
"to see a chit of a girl, just because she has brown curls and brown
eyes with a most bewildering skill in using them, so twiddle a man? It
passes my comprehension."

The old lady shook her head at him. "Wait you, my lad. Your day will
come."

"I hear The Don has got the offer of a great appointment in