vously. "Such
stuff as they have been talking!"

"The chief of the clan, and the boss of the shanty," said Hamish
gravely; "and that was you, Dan, was it not?"

"Oh! what I said is nothing. It was the two Shenacs," said Dan.

Shenac Dhu, as a general thing, was able enough to take her own part;
but she looked a little shamefaced at the moment, and said nothing.

"What did they say, Dan?" asked Allister, laughing.

Shenac Dhu need not have feared. Dan went on to say,--

"I have been telling our Shenac that she will have to `knock under,' now
that you are come home; but she says she is not afraid."

"Why should she be?" asked Allister, who still stood behind his sister,
passing his hand caressingly over her hair.

"Oh, you don't know our Shenac," said Dan, nodding wisely, as though he
could give some important information on the subject. The rest laughed.

"I'm not sure that I know anybody's Shenac very well," said Allister
gravely; "but in time I hope to do so."

"Oh, but our Shenac's not like the rest of the girls. She's hard and
proud, and looks at folk as though she didn't see them. You may laugh,
but I have heard folk say it; and so have you, Shenac Dhu."

"No, I never did," said Shenac Dhu; "but maybe it's true for all that:
there's Sandy McMillan--"

"And more besides him," said Dan. "There's your father--"

"My father! Oh, he's no mark. He believes Shenac Bhan to be at least
fifteen years older than I am, and wiser in proportion. But as for her
not seeing people, that's nonsense, Dan."

But Shenac Bhan would have no more of it.

"Shenac Dhu, you are as foolish as Dan to talk so. Don't encourage him.
What will Allister think?"

Shenac laughed, but said no more.

They were right. Allister was a man of the right sort. Whether, if
circumstances had been different, he would have been content to come
back and settle down as a farmer on his father's land, it is not easy to
say. But as it was, he did not hesitate for a moment. Hamish would
never be able to do hard work. Dan might be steady enough by-and-by to
take the land; but in the meantime Shenac must not be left with a burden
of care too heavy for her. So he set himself to his work with a good
will.

He had not come back a rich man according to the idea of riches held by
the people he had left behind him; but he was rich in the opinion of his
neighbours, and well enough off in his own opinion. That is, he had the
means of rebui