tanding in the yard, waiting to help with the milking.

Ranald drove the cows in, and then, tying up the horses, went straight
to him.

"I bring bad news, Mr. McGregor," he said, anxious to get done with his
sad task. "There has been an accident on the river, and Mack Cameron is
drowned."

"What do you say, boy?" said Peter, in a harsh voice.

"He was trying to save a Frenchman, and when they got him out he was
dead," said Ranald, hurrying through his tale, for he saw the two
figures coming up the lane and drawing nearer.

"Dead!" echoed the old man. "Big Mack! God help me."

"And they will be wanting a team," continued Ranald, "to go to Cornwall
to-morrow."

The old man stood for a few moments, looking stupidly at Ranald. Then,
lifting his hat from his gray head, he said, brokenly: "My poor girl!
Would God I had died for him."

Ranald turned away and stood looking down the lane, shrinking from the
sight of the old man's agony. Then, turning back to him, he said: "The
minister's wife is coming yonder with Bella."

The old man started, and with a mighty effort commanding himself, said,
"Now may God help me!" and went to meet his daughter.

Through the gloom of the falling night Ranald could see the frightened
white face and the staring, tearless eyes. They came quite near before
Bella caught sight of her father. For a moment she hesitated, till the
old man, without a word, beckoned her to him. With a quick little run
she was in his arms, where she lay moaning, as if in sore bodily pain.
Her father held her close to him, murmuring over her fond Gaelic words,
while Ranald and Mrs. Murray went over to the horses and stood waiting
there.

"I will go now to Donald Ross," Ranald said, in a low voice, to the
minister's wife. He mounted the colt and was riding off, when Peter
called him back.

"The boys will take the wagon to-morrow," he said.

"They will meet at the Sixteenth at daylight," replied Ranald; and then
to Mrs. Murray he said, "I will come back this way for you. It will soon
be dark."

But Bella, hearing him, cried to her: "Oh, you will not go?"

"Not if you need me, Bella," said Mrs. Murray, putting her arms around
her. "Ranald will run in and tell them at home." This Ranald promised to
do, and rode away on his woeful journey; and before he reached home that
night, the news had spread far and wide, from house to house, like a
black cloud over a sunny sky.

The home-coming of the men from the sha