of them. She meant to be very quiet, but when she
opened her lips all that was in her heart burst forth. He would not
acknowledge himself ill. He suffered less than he had often done when
he went to the fields daily, though there still lingered enough of
rheumatic trouble about him to make him averse to move much, and
especially to brave the cold. That was the reason he looked so wan and
wilted--that and the anxious thoughts about his mother.

"And, indeed, Shenac, you are more changed than I am in looks, for that
matter."

Shenac made an incredulous movement.

"I am perfectly well," said she.

"Yes; but you are changed. You are much thinner than you used to be,
and sometimes you look pale and very weary, and you are a great deal
older-looking."

"Well, I am older than I used to be," said Shenac.

She rose and crossed the room to look at herself in the glass.

"I don't see any difference," she added, after a moment.

"Not just now, maybe, because you have been busy and your cheeks are
red. And as for being a great deal older, how old are you, Shenac?"

"I am--I shall be nineteen in September; but I feel a great deal older
than that," said Shenac.

"Yes; that is what I was saying. You are changed as well as I. And you
are not to fancy things about me and add to your trouble. I am quite
well. If I were not, I would tell you, Shenac. It would be cruel
kindness to keep it from you; I know that quite well."

Shenac looked wistfully in her brother's face.

"I know I am growing a coward," she said in a broken voice. "O Hamish,
it does seem as though our troubles were too many and hard to bear just
now!"

"He who sent them knows them--every one; and He can make his grace
sufficient for us," said Hamish softly.

"Ay, for you, Hamish."

"And for you too, Shenac. You are not very far from the light, dear
sister. Never fear."

"And in that purest light of thine
We clearly light shall see,"

murmured Shenac. They were ever coming into her mind--bits of the
psalms she had been hearing so much lately; and they brought comfort,
though sometimes she hesitated to take it to her heart as she might.

But light was near at hand, and peace and comfort were not far away.
Afterwards, Shenac always looked back to this night as the beginning of
her Christian life. This night she went to the house of prayer, from
which her fears for Hamish had for a long time kept her, and there the
Lord met her. Oh,