h! Is yon yersel', Aerchie mon?"

Doctor Blair glared down at him from under lowering brows.

"Dear me, Ed, you're an object of pity, when you try to get that clumsy
tongue of yours, hampered as it is by a brogue from Cork, around the
most musical sounds of the most musical language under heaven. Give it
up, man! Give it up!"

"Haud yer whisht! Or whisht yer blethers!--whichever way that
outlandish, heathenish gibberish your forebears jabbered, would have
it. You see, Archie, one great advantage of being Irish--and it's not
your fault that you're not, man, I don't blame you--one great advantage
is that you can speak all languages with equal ease. Now a Scotchman's
tongue is like his sense of humour and his brains--a bit hard to
wiggle."

"_'Beware a tongue that's smoothly hung,
A heart that warmly seems to feel'_"----

quoted Doctor Blair, who was always ready with his Burns. He shoved
his black satchel under the seat, and hauled the muddy lap-robe over
his knees.

"Do you want anything in the line of common sense, or did you just come
over here to blather?"

"I came to see what you thought of Angus. Is he very sick?"

"Angus McRae? Yes he is, Ed, I'm sorry to say. I felt I ought to tell
him to quit work altogether, but he can't afford it."

"Is it anything dangerous?"

"Well, if anything should happen--a shock or strain of any kind on his
heart--he'd be laid up--maybe put out of business altogether."

"And to-day he put a mortgage on his place, to help pay the debts of
Peter McDuff and a dozen other old leeches that live on him."

The two friends looked at each other and nodded silently.

"He's a wonderful man, that Angus McRae," said Dr. Blair.

"He's the finest man living!" cried Lawyer Ed, always enthusiastic. "I
owe that man more than I can ever pay--not money, something more
valuable--nearly everything I have that's worth while."

His friend nodded. There were few men in Algonquin who were not
indebted to Angus McRae for something of value.

"Angus is rich in that sort of wealth," said Archie Blair.

"_It's no in titles nor in rank;
It's no in wealth like Lon'on bank,
To purchase peace and rest.
It's no in makin' muckle mair;
It's no in books; it's no in lear;
To make us truly blest.'_"

"But Angus knows where it is, and he's not like most people who go to
church and sing and pray one day in the week and cheat their neighbours
the other six!"

The doctor