as much
as heard the name.'

The minister shook his head, discounting the certainty.

'Maybe John will remember the name; your father, and your grandfather
too, had great talks with him when he was a lad. I'll write a line and
ask him. Poor William or Thomas might have known, if they had lived.'

William and Thomas, grey-haired men, respected fathers of families, had
already been laid by the side of their father in the burying-ground.
John lived in a distant country, counting himself too feeble now to
cross the seas. The daughters, the younger members of this flock, were
passing into advanced years. The mother sat by her fireside, and smiled
softly to herself as she watched the dancing flame, and thought that her
young lover would return on the morrow.

The days went on.

'I cannot think it right to tamper with my mother in this false way.'
The spinster daughter spoke tearfully.

'Would you rather see Mistress Macdonald die of starvation?' The doctor
spoke sharply; he was tired of the protest. The doctor approved of the
new maid. 'She's a wise-like body,' he said; 'let her have her way.'

'Don't you know us, mother?' the daughters would ask patiently, sadly,
day by day. But she never knew them; she only mistook one or the other
of them at times for her own mother, of whom she stood in some awe.

'Surely ye've not forgotten Ann Johnston, ma'am?' the nurse would ask,
carefully tending her old mistress.

The force of long habit had made the old lady patient and courteous, but
no answering gleam came in her face.

'Ye know who I am?' the new maid would cry in kindly triumph.

'Oh, ay, I know you, Jeanie Trim.'

'And now, look, I brought you a fine cup of milk, warm from the byre.'

'Oh, I canna tak' it; I'm no thinking that I care about eating the day.'

'Well, but I want to tell ye'--with an air of mystery. 'Who d'ye think's
downstairs? It's Mr. Kinnaird himself.'

'Did he come round by the yard to the dairy door?'

'That he did; and all to ask how ye were the day.'

The sparkle of the eye returned, and the smile that almost seemed to
dimple the wrinkled cheek.

'And I hope ye offered him something to eat, Jeanie; it's a long ride he
takes.'

'Bread and cheese, and a cup of milk just like this.'

'What did he say? Did he like what ye gave him?'

'He said a sup of milk sudna cross his lips till you'd had a cupful the
like of his; so I brought it in to ye. You'd better make haste and take
it up.'