avin Grant was a professor there and was teaching her wonderful
truths.

CHAPTER IV

CRAIG-ELLACHIE

In spite of the high rapture of her sacrifice Christina found life
distinctly dull when Sandy and Neil went off to Toronto leaving her
behind. She felt as if she had been away on a long romantic journey
since Allister's return; a journey that gave glimpses of wonderful
countries still to be travelled, and then she had suddenly been dropped
back into Orchard Glen and forbidden to travel any more.

And here she was milking and churning and feeding the hens and
companying with Uncle in the barn yard. Of course Uncle Neil was the
excellent company he had always been, full of song and story, and
Christina could not find an opportunity to mourn over her lot even if
she had been so minded. She was not the sort to wear a martyr's robe.
She would play the part, but she refused to make up for it. So she
went about her daily tasks, singing as blithely as that Spring morning
when Allister opened the gate into a larger life for her, the gate
which she had voluntarily shut, with herself inside. She bore her
disappointment jauntily, walking erect as Eastern girls carry their
burdens on their heads, growing straight and graceful in the effort.

And then she was too busy to fret. There was Grandpa who needed more
help every morning with his dressing, and every evening with the
Hindmost Hymn. There was her mother, whose tasks must now grow lighter
each year, there was Jimmie to be helped with his lessons on Saturdays,
there was a Sunday school class with two of the bad Martin children in
it, and there was Mary's trousseau to help prepare against the wedding
at Christmastime. For the courtship of MacGillivray's man had
proceeded at a furious pace and through Ellen had been engaged for five
years, Mary was to be the first to marry. And so, Christina's hands
were very full, and John would often say to her, after an unusually
busy day, or when a letter came from Sandy bewailing her lot:

"Just wait, Christine. In another year who knows what will happen?"
And Christina's heart was content.

As Mary had to keep up her teaching until the Christmas holidays, and
her evenings were mostly spent with the young man who drove over from
Port Stewart quite a remarkable number of times a week, there was much
to do in the preparation of her clothes. Ellen had stopped her own
embroidering, to wait until Bruce was through college, a