ot often go out at night, and she would rarely consent to leave
him; and no one added so much to the general amusement as Hamish. He
was very skilful at making puzzles and at all sorts of arithmetical
questions, and not one of them could sing so many songs or tell so many
stories as he. He was very merry and sweet-tempered too. His being a
cripple, and different from all the rest, had not made him peevish and
difficult to deal with as such misfortunes are so apt to do, and there
was no one in all the world that Shenac loved so well as her
twin-brother Hamish.

I suppose I ought to describe Shenac more particularly, as my story is
to be more about her than any of the other MacIvors. A good many years
after the time of which I am now writing; I heard Shenac MacIvor--or, as
English lips made it, Jane MacIvor--spoken of as a very beautiful woman
(the Gaelic spelling is Sinec); but at this time I do not think it ever
came into the mind of anybody to think whether she was beautiful or not.
She had one attribute of beauty--perfect health. There never bloomed
among the Scottish hills, which her father and mother only just
remembered, roses and lilies more fresh and fair than bloomed on the
happy face of Shenac, and her curls of golden brown were the admiration
and envy of her dark haired cousins. They called little Flora a beauty,
and a rose, and a precious darling; but of Shenac they said she was
bright and good, and very helpful for a girl of her age; and her brother
Hamish thought her the best girl in the world--indeed, quite without a
fault, which was very far from being true.

For Shenac had plenty of faults. She had a quick, hot temper, which,
when roused, caused her to say many things which she ought not to have
said. Hamish thought all those sharp words were quite atoned for by
Shenac's quick and earnest repentance, but there is a sense in which it
is true that hasty and unkind words can never be unsaid.

Shenac liked her own way too in all things. This did not often make
trouble, however; for she had learned her mother's household ways, and,
indeed, had wonderful taste and talent for these matters. Being the
only daughter of the house, except little Flora, and her mother not
being very strong, Shenac had less to do in the fields than her cousins,
and was busy and happy in the house, except in harvest-time, when even
the little lads, her brothers, were expected to do their part there.

Hamish and Shenac wer