the scenes of busy labour, on the Sabbath not a sound was
heard save in the pastures--the lowing of the cattle and the bleating of
the sheep.

Few people made the labour of the week an excuse for turning the Sabbath
into a day of rest for the body only. The old hereditary respect for
God's day and house still prevailed among them, and the great, grey,
barn-like house of worship, which had been among the first built in the
settlement, was always filled to overflowing with a grave and reverent
congregation.

But among them, during all that long summer, Shenac was seldom seen.
Her mother went when it was not too warm to walk the long three miles
that lay between their house and the kirk, or when she got a seat in a
neighbour's waggon; and Hamish and Dan were seldom away. But Shenac as
seldom went.

"What is the use of going?" she said, in answer to her mother's
expostulations, "when I fall asleep the moment the text is given out.
It's easy to say I should pay attention to the sermon. The minister's
voice would put me to sleep if I were standing at the wheel. Sometimes
it takes the sound of the water, and sometimes of the wind; but it's
hush-a-by that it says to me all the time. And, mother, I think it's a
shame to sleep in the kirk, like old Donald or Elspat Smith. Somebody
must stay at home, and it may as well be me."

I daresay it was not altogether the fault of the minister that Shenac
fell asleep, though his voice was a drowsy drone to many a one besides
her. The week's activity was quite sufficient to account for her
drowsiness, to say nothing of the bright sunshine streaming in through
ten uncurtained windows, and the air growing heavy with the breathing of
a multitude. Shenac tried stoutly, once and again; but it would not do.
The very earnestness with which she fixed her eyes on the kindly,
inanimate face of the minister hastened the slumber; and, touched by her
mother or Hamish, she would waken to see two or three pairs of laughing
eyes fastened upon her. Indeed she did think it a shame; but it was a
hard struggle listening to words which bore little interest, scarcely a
meaning, to her. So she stayed at home, and made the Sabbath-day a day
of rest literally; for as soon as the others were away, and her light
household tasks finished, she took her book and fell asleep, as surely,
and far more comfortably, than she did when she went to the kirk; so
that, as a day in which to grow wiser and better, th