well and cheerful. Her monotonous
flax-spinning filled up the quiet, uneventful days, and, untroubled by
out-door anxieties, she was content.

But, in looking back over this happy time, it was to Hamish that
Shenac's thoughts most naturally turned, for it was the happiness of her
twin-brother, more than all the rest put together, that made the
happiness of Shenac. And Hamish was happier, more like himself, than
ever he had been since their troubles began. Not so merry, perhaps, as
the Hamish of the former days; but he was happy, that was sure. He was
far from well, and he sometimes suffered a good deal; but his illness
was not of a kind to alarm them for his life, and unless he had been
exposed in some way, or a sudden change of the weather brought on his
old rheumatic pains, he was, on the whole, comfortable in health. But
whether he suffered or not, he was happy, that was easily seen. There
was no sitting silent through the long gloamings now, no weary drooping
of his head upon his hands, no wearier struggle to look up and join in
the household talk of the rest. There were no heart-sick broodings over
his own helplessness, no murmurings as to the burden he might yet
become. He did not often speak of his happiness in words, just as he
had seldom spoken of his troubles; but every tone of his gentle voice
and every glance of his loving eye spoke to the heart of his sister,
filling it with content for his sake.

What was the cause of the change? what was the secret of her brother's
peace? Shenac wondered and wondered. She knew it was through his
friend, Mr Stewart, that her brother's life seemed changed; but,
knowing this, she wondered none the less. What was his secret power?
What could Hamish see in that plain, dark man, so grave and quiet, so
much older than he?

True, they had the common tie of a love of knowledge, and pored together
over lines and figures and strange books as though they would never grow
weary of it all. It was true that, more than any one had ever done
before, the master had opened new paths of knowledge to the eager lad--
that by a few quiet words he put more life and heart into a subject than
others could do by hours and hours of talk. But all these things Shenac
shared and enjoyed without being able to understand how, through the
master, a new and peaceful influence seemed to have fallen on the life
of Hamish.

She did not grudge it to him. She was not jealous of the new intere