with him freely, and held his own opinions firmly,
though they often differed widely enough from those of Angus Dhu. But
they never quarrelled. The old man's dogmatic ways vexed and irritated
Shenac many a time; even Hamish had much ado to keep his patience and
the thread of his argument at the same time; but Allister never lost his
temper, and if the old man grew bitter and disagreeable, as he sometimes
did, the best cure for it was Allister's good-humoured determination not
to see it, and so they always got on well together.

Of all their friends, Angus Dhu was the one whom their mother never
failed to recognise. She did not always remember how the last few years
had passed, and spoke to him, as she so often did to others, as though
her husband were still living and her children young; but almost always
she was recalled to the present by the sight of him, and rejoiced over
Allister's return, and the building of the new house, and the prosperity
which seemed to be coming back to them. But, whether she was quite
herself or not, he was always very gentle with her, answering the same
questions and telling the same incidents over and over again for her
pleasure, with a patience very different from anything that might have
been expected from him.

There was one thing about Allister, and Shenac too, which greatly vexed
their uncle. In his eyes it seemed almost like forsaking the God of
their fathers when, Sabbath after Sabbath, they passed by the old kirk
and sat in the new. He would have excused it on the days when old Mr
Farquharson was not there and the old kirk was closed; but that they
should hold with these "new folk" at all times was a scandal in his
eyes.

It was in vain that Hamish proved to him that in doctrine and
discipline--in everything, indeed, except one thing, which could not
affect them in this country--the new folk were just like the old. This
only made the matter less excusable in the eyes of Angus Dhu. The
separation which circumstances might have made necessary at home--as
these people still lovingly called the native land of their fathers--was
surely not needed here, and it grieved and vexed the old man sorely to
see so many leaving the old minister and the kirk their fathers had
built and had worshipped in so long.

But even Angus Dhu himself ventured into the forbidden ground of the new
kirk, when word was brought that Mr Stewart, the schoolmaster of two
years ago, was come to supply the