ft to help Davie with the
straining of the syrup, which was nearly ready now.

"We have had a pleasant afternoon," said Katie; "I only wish the
minister had been here, and Miss Betsey, and Mr Burnet. If we had
known we might have sent for them."

"It is better as it was. Grandfather liked it better," said Davie.
"The minister was here the other day."

"And you didna tell us!"

"Well--I'm telling you now." And in a little he had told the whole
story, shamefacedly, but quite honestly. Katie did not say that she
thought the minister had been hard on him--thought it for a while.
However, Davie did not think he had been hard, she could see, and no
harm was done.

In Katie's opinion Davie had been wonderfully good and thoughtful all
winter. He had very rarely laid himself open to his grandfather's
doubts or displeasure. But after this time there was a difference that
made itself apparent to eyes that were less watchful than Katie's.
"Loving loyalty," that was just the name for it. In great things and
small, after this, the lad laid himself out to please his grandfather.

He was captious with his sisters "whiles," she acknowledged in secret;
he was arbitrary with his little brothers when they neglected tasks of
his giving; and tried his mother and his grandmother, now and then, as
young lads always have, and always will try their mothers and
grandmothers, until old heads can be put on young shoulders.

But with his grandfather he was gentle, patient, and considerate, to a
degree that surprised even Katie, who had been gentle, patient, and
considerate with him all her life. She used to wonder whether her
grandfather noticed it. He never spoke of it, but he found fault less
frequently, and was less exacting as to times and seasons for work, and
as to the lad's comings and goings generally.

Mr Fleming had for a long time said little either of past troubles or
future fears, and it was on the past rather than the future that his
thoughts dwelt. The future looked dark enough in some of its aspects,
but it was by no means hopeless. Davie was more nearly right than Katie
was willing to believe, when he said that his grandfather, as well as a
good many others in Gershom, were waiting to see "what the Lord was
going to do about it," whether it was to be a case of "the righteous
never forsaken," or whether this time "the race was to be to the swift,
and the battle to the strong."

It may be said of the old man, tha