tball match they had carefully and
persistently nursed the acquaintance then begun till they had come to
feel at home in the Macgregor cottage. Hence, when Betty fell into
severe illness and they were at their wits' end for a nurse, they
gladly accepted Mrs. Macgregor's proffered help, and during the long
anxious weeks that followed, the whole family came to regard with
respect, confidence, and finally warm affection, the dignified old lady
who, with such kindly, shrewd, and tender care, nursed the sick girl
back to strength. Helen especially, who had shared the long watch with
her, had made for herself a large place in her heart. To-day, after an
exchange of greetings, Helen drew Mrs. Macgregor back and allowed the
others to go on. For some time they walked in silence, Helen holding
the old lady tight by the arm.

"Well, what do you think of that?" she said finally. "Wasn't it
wonderful? It makes one proud to be a Canadian. What a country that
must be! If I were only a man! It's too bad that men have all the good
things. Wouldn't you like to go yourself?"

"That I would," said the old lady eagerly, "that I would. But I doubt
it's not for me. But yon's a man."

"Yes," cried Helen enthusiastically, "he is a man to follow. Of course,
it was a strange sermon for a church--those stories of his, I mean, and
all those figures about coal beds and gold and cattle. I'm not used to
that sort of thing and I don't like to see the people laugh."

"Ay, he's wise," replied the old lady shrewdly. "When a man laughs he's
nearer to letting his money go. Ay, he's wise, yon man."

"Of course, I think he's extreme," said Helen. "You would think to hear
him there was no place but the West and that every young minister must
go out there and give up everything."

"There's few to go, I doubt," said the old lady in a musing tone, "and
yon are terrible-like places for those lads to live."

"Yes, but everyone can't go."

"No, no. That's it. That's just it. Not many can go and not many are
fit to go. But those that can--" the old lady paused, drawing her
breath in sharply.

"But surely a man may do his work without giving up everything he holds
dear," persisted Helen.

"'Forsaketh not all that he hath,'" quoted the old lady softly.

"Yes, but that's not for everybody," insisted Helen.

"'Whosoever,'" quoted Mrs. Macgregor again, with a stern relentlessness
in her tone. "Ay, there will be no slipping out from under yon."

"But surely