lane it stood, solid
and square, resisting with its well hewn pinelogs the gnawing tooth of
time. Abandoned by the growing town, forgotten by the mill owner, it was
re-discovered by Malcolm McNish, or rather by his keen eyed old mother
on their arrival from the old land six months ago. For a song McNish
bought the solid little cottage, he might have had it as a gift but that
he would not, restored its roof, cleared out its stone chimney which,
more than anything else, had caught the mother's eye, re-set the window
panes, added a wee cunning porch, gave its facings a coat of paint,
enclosed its bit of flower garden in front and its "kale yaird" in the
rear with a rustic paling, and made it, when the Summer had done its
work, a bonnie homelike spot which caught the eye and held the heart of
the passer-by.

The interior more than fulfilled the promise of the exterior. The big
living room with its great stone fireplace welcomed you on opening the
porch door. From the living room on the right led two doors, each giving
entrance to a tiny bedroom and flanking a larger room known as "the
Room."

Within the living room were gathered the household treasures, the Lares
and Penates of the little stone rose-covered cottage "at hame awa' ayont
the sea." On the mantel a solid hewn log of oak, a miracle of broad-axe
work, were "bits o' chiny" rarely valuable as antiques to the knowing
connoisseur but beyond price to the old white-haired lady who daily
dusted them with reverent care as having been borne by her mother from
the Highland home in the far north country when as a bride she came by
the "cadger's cairt" to her new home in the lonely city of Glasgow. Of
that Glasgow home and of her own home later the walls of the log cottage
were eloquent.

The character giving bit of furniture, however, in the living room was
a book-case that stood in a corner. Its beautiful inlaid cabinet work
would in itself have attracted attention, but not the case but the books
were its distinction. The great English poets were represented there
in serviceable bindings showing signs of use, Shakespeare, Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Browning, Keats, and with them in various editions, Burns.
Beside the poets Robert Louis had a place, and Sir Walter, as well as
Kipling and Meredith and other moderns. But on the shelf that showed
most wear were to be found the standard works of economists of different
schools from the great Adam Smith to Marx and the lot of his