e in a shrill,
broken quaver, that made them all laugh, though Shenac Bhan was
indignant too, and bade her cousin mind about the bears that tore the
mocking children.

"But our Shenac sang it after, and me and little Flora," continued Hugh.
"And, Shenac, what was it that the minister said afterwards about the
new song?"

But Shenac would have no more said about it. She cared very little for
Shenac Dhu's opinion, or for her father's either. She went to the
school whenever the old man held a meeting there, and took the children
with her. It was a great deal less trouble than taking them all so far
as to the kirk, she told her mother; and whatever the elder and Angus
Dhu might say, the old man's sermons were just like other folk's
sermons.

About this time there came a letter from Allister. The tidings of his
father's death had reached him just as he was about to start for the
mining district with his cousin and others; he had entered into
engagements which made it necessary for him to go with them,--or he
thought so. He said he would return home as soon as possible; but for
the sake of all there he must not come till he had at least got gold
enough to pay the debt, so that he might start fair. He could not, at
so great a distance, advise his mother what to do; but he knew she had
kind friends and neighbours, who would not let things go wrong till he
came home, which would be at the earliest possible day. In the
meantime, he sent some money--not much, but all he had--and he begged
his mother to keep her courage up, for the sake of the children with
her, and for his sake who was far away.

This letter had been so long in coming, that somehow they had fallen
into the way of thinking that there would be no letter, but that
Allister must be on his way; so, when Shenac got it, it was with many
doubts and fears that she carried it home to her mother. She dreaded
the effect this disappointment might have on her in her enfeebled state,
and shrank in dismay from a renewal of the scenes that had followed her
father's death and the burning of the house.

But she need not have feared. It was indeed a disappointment to the
mother that the coming home of her son must be delayed, and she grieved
for a day or two. But everything went on just as usual, and gradually
she settled down contentedly to her spinning and knitting again; and you
may be sure that whatever troubles fell to the lot of Shenac, she did
not suffer her m