ich tones.
"An' you'se gwine away, an' leavin' you ole Auntie Kirsty," she said
reproachfully, as he came up the steps and shook hands with her.

"But you wouldn't want me to stay and bother Aunt Kirsty in the kitchen
all my life, now, would you, Mammy Viney? I thought men were a
nuisance there."

"Men's jus' a trouble eberywhar," she said sternly. "Dat Mahogany Bill
he was jus' like all de res', an' here you doin' de same, goin' off an'
leabin' folks in de lurch, with all de hard work to do. I'se shame of
you--dat I is!"

Roderick laughed good-naturedly, as he followed her into the house, but
Mammy Viney tossed her head. "Eberybody say dat it pretty mean o' you,
anyhow," she said with the air of one who could tell a great deal if
she wished. "'Deed dey's sayin' dat you no business make Lawya Ed stay
home!"

Roderick did not wait to hear any more of what Algonquin was saying
about him. Mammy Viney rather enjoyed recounting such remarks, and
never took one jot or one tittle from that which she passed along.

Doctor Leslie met him at the study door, with outstretched hands. "Now
tell me all about this going away scheme," he said; and Roderick told
him eagerly, about the brilliant prospects ahead of him, and when he
finished there was the implied question in the boy's eyes. Would he
not be blind to his and every one's best interests to remain in
Algonquin in the face of such inducements?

Doctor Leslie sat and looked out at the orchard trees, with their
wealth of red and gold apples falling with soft thuds upon the grass.
How often had that question come to him in his youth, and when he had
examined his own heart and his reasons for obeying the call to go away,
he had been compelled to remain.

He saw Roderick's position, and sympathised with the youthful longing
to be away and to do great deeds; but he was afraid the way had not yet
truly opened up into which Angus McRae's son could step. He had
learned, in the year Roderick had spent in Algonquin, that the young
man was not vitally interested in the things that are eternal. His
outlook on life was not his father's. The minister felt impelled to
speak plainly.

"I feel sure," he said slowly, turning his eyes from the garden, and
letting them rest kindly upon the boy's frank face, "I feel sure,
Roderick, that no young man who lacks ambition will be of much use to
the world. But ambition is a dangerous guide alone. If you are
anxious to make the best