Bhan, and bitter resentment rose within him at
the thought.

A few months passed away, and there came a letter from Allister, written
soon after his arrival in California. His cousin Evan Dhu was with him.
They had done nothing to earn money as yet, but they were in high
spirits, and full of hope that they would do great things. This letter
gave much comfort to them all; but it was a long time before they heard
from the wanderers again.

In the meantime the affairs of Angus Bhan did not grow more prosperous.
It became more and more difficult for him to pay the interest of his
debt; and though his cousin seldom alluded in words to his obligation,
he knew quite well that he would not abate a penny either of principal
or interest when the time of payment came.

A year passed away. No more letters came from Allister, and his
father's courage grew fainter and fainter. There seemed little hope of
his ever being able to pay his debt; and so, when Angus Dhu asked him to
sell a part of his farm to him, he went home with a heavy heart to
consult his wife about it. They agreed that something must be done at
once; and so it was arranged that if Allister was not heard from, or if
some other means of paying at least the interest did not offer before
the spring, the hundred acres of their land that lay next to the farm of
Angus Dhu should be given up to him. It was sad enough to have to do
this; but Angus Bhan said to his wife,--

"If anything were to happen to me, you and the children would be far
better with half the land free from debt, than with all burdened as it
must be till Allister comes home."

They did not say much to each other, but their hearts were very sore--
his, that he must give up the land left to him by his father; hers, for
his sake, and also for the sake of her first-born son, a wanderer far
away.

That autumn, when the harvest was over, the second son, Lewis, set off
with some young men of the place to join a company of lumberers, who
were, as is their custom, to pass the winter in the woods. It was a
time of great prosperity with lumber-merchants then, and good wages
could be earned in their service. There was nothing to be done at home
in the winter which his father, with the help of the younger children,
could not do; and Lewis, who was eighteen, was eager to earn money to
help at home, and eager also to enter into the new and, as he thought,
the merry life in the woods. So Lewis went away, and