y. "Christine was so ta'en up
wi' the feesh, naething else was of any import to her. Here was a
Scottish gentleman coming, who might be the makin' o' him, and a
barrel o' herrin' stood in his way." He had actually fretted himself
into his Scotch form of speech, a thing no Gael ever entirely forgets
when really worried to the proper point.

When he had said his heart's say of Christine, he turned his
impatience on Ballister--his behavior was that o' the ordinary rich
young man, who has naething but himsel' to think o'. He, Neil Ruleson,
had lost a hale morning's wark, waiting on his lairdship. Weel, he'd
have to pay for it, in the long run. Neil Ruleson had no waste hours
in his life. Nae doubt Ballister had heard o' a fast horse, or a
fast----

Then Ballister knocked at the door, and Neil stepped into his
scholarly manner and speech, and answered Ballister's hearty greeting
in the best English style.

"I am glad to see you, Neil. I only came to Ballister two days ago,
and I have been thinking of you all the time." With these words the
youth threw his Glengary on the table, into the very center and front
of Neil's important papers. Then he lifted his chair, and placed it
before the open door, saying emphatically as he did so--

Lands may be fair ayont the sea,
But Scotland's hills and lochs for me!

O Neil! Love of your ain country is a wonderful thing. It makes a man
of you."

"Without it you would not be a man."

Ballister did not answer at once, but stood a moment with his hand on
the back of the deal, rush-bottomed chair, and his gaze fixed on the
sea and the crowd of fishing boats waiting in the harbor.

Without being strictly handsome, Ballister was very attractive. He had
the tall, Gaelic stature, and its reddish brown hair, also brown eyes,
boyish and yet earnest. His face was bright and well formed, his
conversation animated, his personality, in full effect, striking in
its young alertness.

"Listen to me, Neil," he said, as he sat down. "I came to my majority
last March, when my uncle and I were in Venice."

"Your uncle on your mother's side?"

"No, on the sword side, Uncle Ballister. He told me I was now my own
master, and that he would render into my hands the Brewster and
Ballister estates. I am sure that he has done well by them, but he
made me promise I would carefully go over all the papers relating to
his trusteeship, and especially those concerning the item of
interests. It seems tha