w the light, I left him there." And the
manly voice had much ado to keep from breaking into sobs again as he
spoke.

"His father has been so anxious. No letter has come to us since Evan's
came to his father to say that he was dying. I wish the old man had
been prepared," said Shenac.

"Oh, I am grieved! If I had but thought," said Allister regretfully.

"It is quite as well that he was not prepared," said Hamish. And he was
right.

Shenac Dhu told them about it afterwards.

"My mother went to the door, and when she saw Evan she gave a cry and
let the light fall. And then we all came down; and my father came out
of his bed just as he was, and when he saw my mother crying and clinging
about the lad, he dropped down in the big chair and held out his hands
without saying a word. You may be sure Evan was not long in taking
them; and then he sank down on his knees, and my father put his arms
round him, and would not move--not even to put his clothes on,"
continued Shenac Dhu, laughing and sobbing at the same time. "So I got
a plaid and put about him; and there they would have sat, I dare say,
till the dawn, but after just the first, Evan looked pale and weary, and
my father said he must go to bed at once. `But first tell us about your
cousin Allister,' my father said. Evan said it would take him all
night, and many a night, to tell all that Allister had done for him; and
then my father said, `God bless him!' over and over. And I cannot tell
you any more," said Shenac Dhu, laughing and crying and hiding her face
in her hands.

"But as to my father being prepared," she added gravely, after a
moment's pause, "I am afraid if he had had time to think about it, it
would have seemed his duty to be stern at first with Evan. But it is
far better as it is; and he can hardly bear him out of his sight. Oh,
I'm glad it is over! I know now, by the joy of the home-coming, how
terrible the waiting must have been to him."

Very sad to Allister was his mother's only half-conscious recognition of
him. She knew him, and called him by name; but she spoke, too, of his
father and Lewis, not as dead and gone, but as they used to be in the
old days when they were all at home together, when Hamish and Shenac
were little children. She was content, however, and did not suffer.
There were times, too, when she seemed to understand that he had been
away, and had come home to care for them all; and she seemed to trust
him entirely t