Well, it's not me that says it," said Dan angrily; "plenty folk think
that of our Shenac.--And you had no business to tell him not to come,
when I had spoken to him."

"What will Sandy care for a girl like Shenac?" asked his cousin
mockingly.

"Well, _I_ care," persisted Dan. "She's always interfering and having
her own way about things--and--"

"Whisht, Dan, lad," pleaded the mother.

"I didn't know that you had spoken to Sandy--not that it would have made
any difference, however," added Shenac candidly.

"And, Dan, you don't suppose any one will care for what a girl like
Shenac Bhan may say. He'll come all the same to please you," said
Cousin Shenac.

"Whether he comes or not, I'm going to McLay's raising," said Dan
angrily. "Shenac's not _my_ mistress, yet a while."

"Whisht, Dan; let's have no quarrelling," pleaded the mother.--"Why do
you vex him?" she continued, as Dan rushed out of the room.

"I did not mean to vex him, mother," said Shenac gently.

This was only one of many vexatious discussions that had troubled their
peace during the summer. Sometimes Shenac's conscience acquitted her of
all blame; but, whether it did or not, she always felt that if Hamish
had been at home all this might have been prevented. She did not know
how to help it. Sometimes her mother blamed her more than was quite
fair for Dan's fits of wilfulness and idleness, and she longed for
Hamish to be at home again.

Dan went to the raising, and, I daresay, was none the better for the
companionship of the offended Sandy. Shenac stayed at home and worked
at the barley till it grew dark. She even did something at it when the
moon rose, after her mother had gone to bed; but she herself was in bed
and asleep before Dan came, so there was nothing more said at that time.

The harvest dragged a little, but they got through with it in a
reasonable time. There were more wet weather and more anxiety all
through the season than there had been last year; but, on the whole,
they had reason to be thankful that it had ended so well. Shenac was by
no means so elated as she had been last year. She was very quiet and
grave, and in her heart she was beginning to ask herself whether Angus
Dhu might not have been right, and whether she might not have better
helped her mother and all of them in some other way. They had only just
raised enough on the farm to keep them through the year, and surely they
might have managed just to live with l