, heart-breaking sound!--Dan made one blind step
towards Shenac, and would have fallen but for Angus Dhu. Little Flora
cried out wildly, and her sister held her fast. She did not shriek, nor
swoon, nor break into weeping, as did Shenac Dhu; but "her face would
never be whiter," said they who saw it, and many a kindly and anxious
eye followed her as the long line of mourners slowly turned on their
homeward way again.

After the first day or two, Shenac tried faithfully to fall back into
her old household ways--or, rather, she tried to settle into some
helpful place in her brother's household. The wheel was put to use
again, and, indeed, there was need, for all things had lagged a little
during the summer; and Shenac did her day's work, and more, as she used
to do. She strove to be interested in the discussions of ways and means
which Allister's wife was so fond of holding, but she did not always
strive successfully. It was a weariness to her; everything was a
weariness at times. It was very wrong, she said, and very strange, for
she really did wish to be useful and happy in her brother's household.
She thought little of going away now; she had not the heart for it. The
thought of beginning some new, untried work made her weary, and the
thought of going away among strangers made her afraid.

When it was suggested that she and little Flora should pay a
long-promised visit to their uncle, at whose house Hamish had passed so
many weeks, and that they should go soon, that they might have the
advantage of the fine autumn weather, she shrank from the proposal in
dismay.

"Not yet, Allister," she pleaded; "I shall like it by-and-by, but not
yet."

So nothing of the kind was urged again. They made a mistake, however.
A change of some kind was greatly needed by her at this time. Her
brother's long illness and death had been a greater strain on her health
and spirits than any one dreamed. She was not ill, but she was in that
state when if she had been left to herself, or had had nothing to do,
she might have become ill, or have grown to fancy herself so, which is a
worse matter often, and worse to cure. As it was, with her good
constitution and naturally cheerful spirit, she would have recovered
herself in time, even if something had not happened to rouse and
interest her.

But something did happen. Shenac went one fair October afternoon over
the fields to the beech woods to gather nuts with Flora and the young
l