left till the right time is
past, and disorder and discomfort are sure to follow. I daresay the
early snow fell that year on many a plough left in the furrow, and on
many a hoe and spade left in garden or yard. But all was as it should
be at Mrs Macivor's.

In summer, when a long day's work in the field was the order of things,
when those who were strong and able were always busy, it seemed to
Hamish that he was of little use. This was a mistake of his. He was of
great use in many ways, even when he went to the field late and left it
early; for though Shenac took the lead in work and planning, she was
never sure that her plans were wise, or even practicable, till she had
talked them over with Hamish. She would have lost patience with Dan and
the rest, and with her mother even, if she had not had Hamish to "empty
her heart to." But even Shenac, though she loved her brother dearly,
and valued his counsels and sympathy as something which she could not
have lived and laboured without--even she did not realise how much of
their comfort depended on the work of his weak hands. It was Hamish who
banked the house and made the garden; it was he who drove nails and
filled cracks, who gathered up tools and preserved seeds, quietly doing
what others did not do and remembering what others forgot. It was
Hamish who cared for the creatures about the place; it was he who made
and mended and kept in order many things which it would have cost money
to get or much inconvenience to go without. So it may be said that it
was owing to Hamish that the early snow did not find them unprepared.

A grave matter was under discussion within-doors that morning while
little Flora and her brothers were chasing each other through the snow.
It was whether Dan was to go to the school that winter. It was seldom
that any but young children could go to school in the summer-time, the
help of the elder ones being needed in the field as soon as they were
old enough to help. But in the winter few young people thought
themselves too old to go to school while the teacher could carry them
on. Hamish and Shenac had gone up to the time of their father's death.
But as for Dan, he thought himself old enough now to have done with
school. He had never been, in country phrase, "a good scholar?"--that
is, he had never taken kindly to his books--a circumstance which seemed
almost like disgrace in the eyes of Shenac; and she was very desirous
that he should get