r man when he would be sitting at home with his old
mother, for it seemed to me that the lassies that would be passing had
very bright eyes, and that they would be looking back often too.

We sat down to a meal in the kitchen, Dan and me, and he kept them all
in crack. For the mistress he promised to gather bog-bean when the
time came, and she was in her very element; and there sat Dan McBride
with Gude kens what evil in his head, his eyes smiling at the old dame
and listening how she cured a young lass of a stomach complaint with
the wee round caps of the wilks--"for mind you," says she, "each wee
round cap will lift its ain weight o' poison frae the stomach."

"And the coosp,[1] now, mistress; Hamish here will no' be believing me,
but there's de'il the halt better for the coosp than"--and so his talk
went on, and him not believing one word. And when her mother would be
rattling among the plates on the dresser, Dan would be bending over and
speaking to the lass, and looking into her eyes, and the gruff old
father saying never a word, and the two sons arguing where it was that
Dan had jumped the Nourn burn when the bridge was carried away with the
big spate. And when we had our fill o' eating, we followed Ronny up
the Glen, for Dan would ken how the hogs were doing there now he was
this length, and so we tracked through the Glen, leaving Finlay
Stuart's house behind us. As we passed I saw a lass in the stable, and
I wondered if Ronny had seen his mother yet.

It was just the long weary road to the South End that Dan and me
travelled, so the reader can follow Ronny, for he told me his story
long after of his coming when we needed him most. And this was the
story that he told me:--

"Man," said Ronny, "when I took my leave o' ye at the Quay I just
thought yon day would see it settled between Mirren and me, once and
for all, and I'll no' be denying a queer happy feeling, for I felt I
could be conquering everything that day; but maybe it was because o'
the siller I had in my spluchan to be giving to my old mother, for if
the want o' it will not be making a lad miserable, the having o' it
will aye keep his spirits up.

"I would be thinking, inside of myself, that she would be sitting in
the kitchen, my old mother, and shooing the wee white hen away from
layin' in the bed, and then I would be coming in so quiet, and be
putting my hands over her eyes, and she would be kenning me, and
laughing, and greeting, for that