ow and lips. As he raised himself, the closed eyes
opened, and the smiling lips murmured, as Shenac stooped again to catch
the words,--

"He will come again, to care for you always. I could hardly have borne
to leave my Shenac, but for that."

Shenac lifted her startled eyes to Mr Stewart's face.

"Is he wandering?" she asked.

"No. Will you let me care for you always, Shenac, good and dear child?"

Shenac did not catch the true meaning of his words, but she saw that his
lip quivered, and the hand he held out trembled; so she placed hers in
it for a farewell. Then he kissed her as he had kissed her brother, and
then he went away.

There was no break in the long summer days after this. Sabbaths and
weekdays were all the same in the quiet room. Once or twice Hamish was
carried in Allister's strong arms to the door, or to the seat at the end
of the house, and through almost all July he sat for an hour or two each
day in the great chair by the western window. But after August came in,
the only change he had was between his bed and the low couch beside it.
He did not suffer much pain, but languor and restlessness overpowered
him often; and then the strong, kind arms of his elder brother never
were wearied, even when the harvest-days were longest, but bore him from
bed to couch, and from couch to bed again, till he could rest at last.
Sometimes, when he could rest nowhere else, he would slumber a little
while with his head on his sister's shoulder, and her arms clasped about
him.

When a friend came in to sit with him for a while, or when he was easy
or slumbered through the day, Shenac made herself busy with household
matters; for, what with the milk and the wool and the harvest-people,
Shenac Dhu had more than she could well do, even with the help of her
handmaid Maggie, and her sister strove to lighten the labour. But the
care of her brother was the work that fell to her now, and at night she
never left him. She slept by snatches in the great chair when he slept,
and whiled away the wakeful hours when his restless turns came on.

She was not doing too much for her strength; she was quite fit for it
all. The neighbours were more than kind, and many of them would gladly
have shared the watching at night with her; but Hamish was not used to
have any one else about him, and it could hardly be called watching, for
she slept all she needed. And, besides, it was harvest-time, and all
were busy in the fields, a