added the bitter pain of saying farewell for ever and
for ever to Scotland, their native land. It is true that not among all
her hills or valleys, or in all her great and prosperous towns, could be
found room for them and theirs; it is true that a home in the beloved
land was denied them: but it was their native land all the same, and
eyes that had refused to weep at the last look of dear faces left
behind, grew dim with tears as the broken outline of Scotland's hills
faded away in the darkness.

But out of very sorrowful events God oftentimes causes much happiness to
spring; and it was so to these poor people in their banishment. Into
the wide Canadian forests they came, and soon the wilderness and the
solitary place were glad for them; soon the wild woods were made to
rejoice with the sound of joyful voices ringing out from many a happy
though humble home. And though there were those among the aged or the
discontented who never ceased to pine for the heather hills of the old
land, the young grew up strong and content, troubled by no fear that,
for many and many a year to come, the place would become too strait for
them or for their children.

They did not speak English these people, but a language called Gaelic,
not at all agreeable to English ears, but very dear to the heart of the
Scottish Highlander. It is passing somewhat out of use now; but even at
this day I have heard of old people who will go many miles to hear a
sermon preached in that language--the precious gospel itself seeming
clearer and richer and more full of comfort coming to them in the
language which they learned at their mother's knee.

"It was surely the language first spoken on earth, before the beguiling
serpent came to our mother," once said an old man to me; "and maybe
afterwards too, till the foolish men on the plain of Shinar brought
Babel on the earth. And indeed it may be the language spoken in heaven
to-day, so sweet and grand and fit for the expression of high and holy
thoughts is it."

It is passing out of use now, however, even among the Highlanders
themselves. Gaelic is the household language still, where the father
and mother are old, or where the grand-parents live with the rising
generation; but English is the language of business, of the newspapers,
and of all the new books that find their way among the people. It is
fast becoming the language in which public worship is conducted too.
There are very few books in the Gae