MacIvor sat holding on the bank close beside
the great willow peeped forth violets, blue and white. There were
lady-slippers too somewhere not far away, Flora was sure, if only Dan or
Hughie could be persuaded to look for them a little farther down the
creek, in the damp ground under the cedars, where she had promised her
mother she would not go.

But the lads had something else to do than to look for flowers for
Flora. Down the creek, which was broad and full because of the melting
snow, a number of great cedar chips were floating. Past the
foot-bridge, and past the eddy by the great rock, and over the pool into
which the creek widened by the old ashery, the mimic fleet sailed
safely; while the lads shouted and ran, and strove by the help of long
sticks to pilot them all into the little cove by the willow where little
Flora was sitting, till even the flower-loving little maiden forgot her
treasures, and grew excited like the rest.

You would never have thought, looking at those bright faces, that heavy
trouble had been in their home for months. Listening to their merry,
voices, you would never have imagined that there were, in some hearts
that loved them, grave doubts whether for the future they were to have a
home together or no. But so it was.

Higher up the bank, where the old ashery used to stand, Shenac and
Hamish were sitting. The triumphant shout with which the last and
largest of the boats was landed, startled them out of the silence in
which they had been musing, and the girl said sadly,--

"Children forget so soon!"

Hamish made no answer. He was not watching the little sailors. His
face was quite turned away from them, and looked gloomy and troubled
enough. The girl watched a moment anxiously; and then turning her eyes
where his had been for some time resting, she cried passionately,--

"I wish a fire would break out and burn it to ashes, every stick!"

"What would be the good of that? Angus Dhu would put it all up again,"
said Hamish bitterly. "He might save himself the trouble, though. He
means to have _all_ the land shortly."

They were watching the progress of a fence of great cedar rails which
three or four men were building; and no wonder they watched it with
vexation, for it went from line to line, dividing in two parts the land
that had belonged to their father. He was dead now, and their brother
Allister was far away, they knew not where, in search of gold; and there
was no on