g to harm or harass him now after so long
a time."

"I cannot say whether he be rich or poor; but I am certain sure that
nothing will hinder him from paying his debt. He told me that the sight
of my face had given him more pleasure than anything he had seen in
Scotland yet," said John laughing. "I would have brought him out to see
you, if the doctor would have let him come. He is but a frail man, and
must go south again till summer is fairly here. He said little about
himself, but I know he is a married man."

"And he would be sorry to hear of your father's losses at the last."

"Ay, that was he, and angry at the ill done him. If he had but known,
he said, he could have helped to tide him over the worst of his
troubles, and it might have prolonged his life."

"It was God's will, and we must submit," said Mrs Beaton softly.

"Yes, it was God's will." Then John rose and set the table back into
its place, and stirred the fire and sat down again.

"Well, John?" said his mother in a little.

"Well, mother! You are a rich woman again, in a small way."

"I have ay been a rich woman. If I had been asked would I have more, I
would have said I am content. I am glad of this for your sake, John, if
you are glad. But I think the message from your father, as it seems, is
more to me than the money."

"Yes, mother, and to me as well."

"You had something to tell me, John," said his mother, in a little.

"I thought I had when I came home. Now I am not sure. There is
something that we may speak about together, and you will help me to make
up my mind one way or the other."

Mrs Beaton listened in silence as John went on to tell her what he had
been doing and thinking for a while. He had not been idle since the
building season ended. He had been in the employment of one of the
builders of the town. He had been able to make himself useful to him--
first by going over and putting to rights the books of the business,
which had fallen into confusion, and afterward at more congenial work,
where his knowledge of drawing, to which he had given much time when he
was a boy, was brought into account with a success which had surprised
himself. And now his employer had offered him a permanent place, with
an opportunity to acquire the kind of knowledge of his work which would
come but slowly to him while he worked only with his hands.

He owned that he liked Mr Swinton, and that they got on well together.
Yes, the prospec