work.

But her being willing or unwilling made no difference. Dan was not old
enough nor wise enough to be trusted with the management. The burden of
care must fall on her, and the burden of labour too; and she set herself
to the task with more intentness than ever when the letter came saying
that Allister was not coming home.

CHAPTER NINE.

It was a bright day in the end of September. Shenac had been busy at
the wheel all the morning, but the very last thread of their flannel was
spun now. The wheel was put away, and Shenac stood before her mother,
dressed in her black gown made for mourning when her father died. Her
mother looked surprised, for this gown was never worn except at church,
or when a visit was to be made.

"Mother," said Shenac, "I have made ready the children's supper, and
filled the sacks in case Dan should want to go to the mill, and I want
to go over to see if Shenac and Maggie can come some day to help me with
the flax."

The mother assented, well pleased, for it was a long time since Shenac
had gone to the house of Angus Dhu of her own will.

"And, mother, maybe I'll go with Shenac as far as The Eleventh. It's a
long time since I have seen Mary Matheson, and I'll be home before
dark."

"Well, well, go surely, if you like," said her mother; "and you might
speak to McLean about the flannel, and bespeak McCallum the tailor to
come as soon as he can to make the lads' clothes; and you might ask
about the shoes."

"Yes, mother, I'll mind them all. I'll just speak to Hamish first, and
then I'll away."

Hamish was in the garden digging and smoothing the ground where their
summer's potatoes had grown, because he had nothing else to do, he said,
and it would be so much done before the spring. Shenac seated herself
on the fence, and began pulling, one by one, the brown oak leaves that
hung low over it. There was no gate to the garden. It was doubtful
whether a gate could have been made with sufficient strength, or
fastened with sufficient ingenuity, to prevent the incursions of the
pigs and calves, which, now that the fields were clear from grain, were
permitted to wander over them at their will. So the garden was entered
by a sort of stile--a board was placed with one end on the ground, and
the other on the middle rail of the fence--and it was on this that
Shenac sat down.

"Hamish," she said after a little, "what do you think of my asking John
Firinn to plough the land for the