r; it's no lang since they
barely escaped being murdered by your son. What more want you? But ye
perhaps think it better that the time should be passed in making hollow
lip professions o' good will, than that it suld be employed in clearing
off an old score."

"Ay," hiccuped out the elder of the two sons, "the houses might come my
way, then; an', besides, gin Helen Henry were to lose her ae joe, the
ither might hae a better chance. Rise, brither--rise, man, an' fight for
me an' your sweetheart." The younger lad, who seemed verging towards the
last stage of intoxication, struck his clenched fist against his palm,
and attempted to rise.

"Look ye, uncle," exclaimed the younger fisherman, a powerful-looking
and very handsome stripling, as he sprang to his feet, "your threat
might be spared. Our little property was my grandfather's, and naturally
descended to his only son; and, as for the affair at Rhorichie, I dare
either of my cousins to say the quarrel was of my seeking. I have no
wish to raise my hand against the sons or the husband of my aunt; but,
if forced to it, you will find that neither my father nor myself are
wholly at your mercy."

"Whisht, Earnest," said the old fisherman, laying his hand on the hand
of the young man; "sit down--your uncle maun hae ither thoughts. It is
now fifteen years, Eachen," he continued, "since I was called to my
sister's deathbed. You yourself canna forget what passed there. There
had been grief, an' cauld, an' hunger, beside that bed. I'll no say you
were willingly unkind--few folk are that but when they hae some purpose
to serve by it, an' you could have none; but you laid no restraint on a
harsh temper, and none on a craving habit that forgets everything but
itsel; and so my puir sister perished in the middle o' her days--a
wasted, heart-broken thing. It's no that I wish to hurt you. I mind how
we passed our youth thegither, among the wild Buccaneers; it was a bad
school, Eachen; an' I owre often feel I havena unlearned a' my ain
lessons, to wonder that you shouldna hae unlearned a' yours. But we're
getting old men, Eachen, an' we have now what we hadna in our young
days, the advantage o' the light. Dinna let us die fools in the sight o'
Him who is so willing to give us wisdom--dinna let us die enemies. We
have been early friends, though maybe no for good; we have fought afore
now at the same gun; we have been united by the luve o' her that's now
in the dust; an' there are our bo