h was so
strangely momentous a day in more lives than one, the next chapter must
tell.

Chapter 3

The carriage of the Earl of Cairnforth, with its familiar and yet long
unfamiliar liveries, produced a keen sensation among the simple folk who
formed the congregation of Cairnforth. But they had too much habitual
respect for the great house and great folk of the place, mingled with
their national shyness and independence, to stare very much. A few
moved aside to make way for the two grand Edinburg footmen who leaped
down from their perch in order to render customary assistance to the
occupants of the carriage.

Mrs. Campbell and Mr. Menteith descended first, and then the two footmen
looked puzzled as to what they should do next.

But Malcolm was before them--Malcolm, who never suffered mortal man
but himself to render the least assistance to his young master; who
watched and tended him; waited on and fed him in the day, and slept in
his room at night; who, in truth, had now, for a year past, slipped into
all the offices of a nurse as well as servant, and performed them with a
woman's tenderness, care, and skill. Lord Cairnforth's eyes brightened
when he saw him; and, carried in Malcolm's arms--a few stragglers of
the congregation standing aside to let them pass--the young earl was
brought to the door of the kirk where his family had worshiped for
generations.

Two elders stood there beside the plate--white-headed farmers, who
remembered both the late lord and the one before him.

"You's the earl," whispered they, and came forward respectfully; then,
startled by the unexpected and pitiful sight, they shrank back; but
either the boy did not notice this, or was so used to it that he showed
no surprise.

"My purse, Malcolm," the small, soft voice was heard to say.

"Ay, my lord. What will ye put into the plate?"

"A guinea, I think, today, because I am so very happy."

This answer, which the two elders overheard, was told by them next day
to every body, and remembered along the loch-side for years.

Cairnforth Kirk, like most other Scotch churches of ancient date, is
very plain within and without, and the congregation then consisted
almost entirely of hillside farmers, shepherds, and the like, who
arrived in families--dogs, and all, for the dogs always came to
church, and behaved there as decorously as their masters. Many the
people walked eight, ten, and even twelve miles, from the extreme
boundar