h his will was strong. The rest of the day was passed
between sleeping and waking, while Allison sat working in silence by the
window. But he returned to his declaration in the morning.

"Yes, I mean to live, but for a' that I may as well be prepared for
death. And you'll send Mr Rainy to me this very day. He must just
come while I need him--and when I'm at my best and able for him. I'll
die none the sooner for setting all things in order to my mind."

So the next day Mr Rainy came, and for a good many days, and went
through with him many matters of business, which must be attended to
whether he lived or died. He was quite fit for it--a little at a time--
Mr Rainy declared. But the doctor wondered that his strength held out
through it all. There was no evidence of failure in sense or judgment
in all he said or planned, though his memory sometimes was at fault.

There was much to do, and some of it was not of a nature to give either
peace or pleasure to the sick man. But it came to an end at last, and
there were a few days of quiet till he was rested. Then he began again.

"I may be going to die, or I may be going to live. Who can say? It
must be as God wills. But I have settled with myself one thing.
Whether I am to live or to die, it is to be in my own house."

This was said to Dickson, who was ready with an answer to please him.

"And the sooner the better, sir, say I. The fine fresh air o' the hills
would set you up sooner than a' their doctor's bottles is like to do.
If it were only May instead of November, I would say the sooner the
better."

"And I say the sooner the better at this time. Yes, it's late, and it's
a lang road, and I have little strength to come and go upon. But there
are ways o' doing most things--when the siller (money) needna be
considered, and where there is a good will to do them."

"Ay, sir, that's true. And I daresay the laird micht send his ain
carriage, and ye micht tak' twa days to it, or even three."

"No, no. The sooner the journey could be gotten over the better. But
that's a good thought o' yours about the laird's carriage. He'll send
it fast enough, if I but ask it. But I'm done out now, and I'll need to
lie still a while, to be ready and at my best, when the doctor comes."

But when the doctor came, Brownrig had forgotten his intention to speak,
or he did not feel equal to the effort needed for the assertion of his
own will in a matter which was of such i