th you! To America!"

"Yes, with me. Why not? They have fine colleges. I could learn to be
a doctor as well there as here, at least I could learn well enough. And
then there is your brother, and--John Beaton. The change is what you
need. You wouldna, maybe, like to go by yourself, and I could take care
of you as well as another."

This hold and wise proposal had the effect of staying Allison's tears,
which was something.

"And what would your father and mother say to that, think ye?" said
Allison with a smile.

"I dinna--just ken. But I ken one thing. They would listen to reason.
They ay do that. And a little sooner or later, what difference would it
make? For it is there I am going some time, and that soon."

"And so am I, I hope--but not just yet. I couldna go to a strange land,
to bide among strange folk, until--I am fitter for it. If my brother
had a house of his own, I might go."

"But when your brother gets a house of his own, he'll be taking a wife,"
said Robert gravely.

"Surely! I would like that well."

"Oh! it will come whether you like it or no. If he canna get one, he'll
get another--there's no fear."

"Ah! but if he canna get the right one, he should take none. And he
would ay have me."

Robin might have had his own thoughts about that matter. He said
nothing, however, but that night he wrote a letter to his mother. He
wrote about various matters, as once every week it was his duty and
pleasure to do. And when he had said all else that was to be said, he
added, that Allison Bain whiles looked as she used to look in her first
days in Nethermuir--as though she had lost all her friends, and as
though she might lose herself next.

"I told her to-night that her best wisdom would be to come away with me
to America. I meant, of course, that I would go with her if she was
afraid to go by herself. For they say there are fine colleges in
America, and I could keep on with my work there. Allison is getting no
good here, among her auld wives."

Mrs Hume smiled at Robert's proposal, and so did the minister, but they
both looked grave at his account of Allison.

"It is a pity that she refuses to come here for a few weeks," said Mr
Hume.

"Yes, it might do her good. Still it would not be as it was at first.
It was because her hands were busy and her days full, that she was
helped then. It would be different now. And more than that, she seems
quite to shrink from the thought of i