the mother
of the heir was of the Established Church. Mrs. Crumpet said she
had always heard that among the gentry the women were fiercer in
their religion than the men. The Shepherd remembered the Laird of
Kinross, but said nothing.

On the way home from church Jean and Jock noticed that smoke was
issuing from all the castle chimneys. It was now early autumn,
and, as Jean said, the castle must be damp from, standing so long
empty, and they had the right to warm it up for the wee Laird,
him being so sickly.

The suspense of the long weeks of summer had now become acute. If
the Auld Laird's wish to turn the tenants out of their holdings
to make Glen Cairn into a large game preserve was to be carried
out, the time for doing it was near, and the people looked
forward to the supper at the castle with both hope and dread.

Every one was to be there, and on Monday a wonderful amount of
preparation was going forward in every cottage and farmhouse on
the estate. Jean had her father's blacks on the line and
thoroughly brushed early in the morning, and the Sabbath clothes
for all three of them laid out on the chairs in "the room" by
noon. At four o'clock they were on their way to the castle. Jock
had wanted to start at three, but Jean was firm.

"It isna genteel to be going so early," she said. "T'will look
greedy, and you'll not get fed the sooner."

Any one would have said Jean looked pretty that day, for she was
not wearing her "Saturday face," and the little curls had crept
around her head unbeknownst and were blowing in bright tendrils
about her forehead under the edge of her bonnet with its sprig of
pine. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright with health and
excitement, and Robert Campbell, looking with pride at his sturdy
son and daughter, said to himself, "It's a sonsie lassie and braw
lad. I wish their mother could see them."

They walked down the river road, where the autumn colors were
beginning to appear, and at the bridge met the Crumpet family all
dressed in their best, also on their way to the castle. Sandy had
scrubbed himself till his face was shining like a glass bottle, and
the sprig of pine waved proudly from his bonnet, too. At every branch
road they were joined by others, and when they neared the castle gates
there was already quite a large group of people from the village as
well. Every one was in a state of tense excitement, for the fate of
all hung in the balance. Since the tenure of their ho