re with me, and no
end of larks!" Here Sandy, who had so far merely gazed at his
Chief with speechless devotion, suddenly burst into words.

"Aye, Chief," he cried, "that was a true word you spoke about no
gamekeeper being needed in Glen Cairn. I'm none so keen for the
learning, but if there should be poachers hanging about, they'll
have Sandy Crumpet to deal with; let them take warning of that!"

Alan laughed and clapped Sandy on the back. "I'd rather have you
than forty Angus Niels," he said, and then they were swept along,
without a chance for further words, into the great hall, where
they found long tables spread and Eppie McLean with a dozen
helpers bringing in such stores of food that all Sandy had said
about the preparations at the castle was justified at a glance.

Most of the people had already found places at the tables when
the young Laird and his mother, followed by the minister and his
wife and the castle guests, cams into the hall. The Twins and
Sandy hung back behind all the other guests, but Alan found
places for them opposite his own, and then he handed his mother
to the seat of honor at the head of the table. The minister and
the guests from the city ranged themselves on either side, and
every one stood with bowed head while the minister asked a
blessing upon the food, upon the new Laird and his mother, and
upon all the people of Glen Cairn.

There was a great scraping of chairs, and then every one sat down
and fell upon the good things like an army of locusts upon a
harvest field. The great hall, so long silent, echoed with happy
voices and the clatter, of knives and forks, and Jean, looking
across the table at the new Laird, in all his glory, wondered if
it could be possible that it was the very Alan whom she had
shaken when Angus shot the stag, or who had helped her set the
table in the kitchen of the little gray house, while his wet
clothes were drying by the cottage fire. She ate her supper like
one in a dream, and though she kept a watchful eye on Jock's
table manners and warned Sandy's elbows off the table several
times in her own efficient way, she could scarcely believe such
wonderful things were really happening to her.

At last the wonderful day drew to a close, and the people of Glen
Cairn, happier than they had been in a long time, said good-bye to
the gracious lady of the castle and to the already beloved young
Laird, and started home in the deepening twilight of the autumn
evenin