the silent corries around Ben-Nevis, the red deer trooping over
the misty steeps, and the brown hinds lying among the green plumes of
fern, and the wren and the thrush lilting in song together.

"Oh, the bonnie, bonnie Hielands!" cried David with a passionate
affection; "it is always Sabbath up i' the mountains, Christine. I
maun see them once again ere I lay by my pilgrim-staff and shoon for
ever."

"Then you are not Glasgow born, Mr. Cameron," said James, with the air
of one who finds out something to another's disadvantage.

"Me! Glasgo' born! Na, na, man! I was born among the mountains o'
Argyle. It was a sair downcome fra them to the Glasgo' pavements. But
I'm saying naething against Glasgo'. I was but thinking o' the days
when I wore the tartan and climbed the hills in the white dawns, and,
kneeling on the top o' Ben Na Keen, saw the sun sink down wi' a smile.
It's little ane sees o' sunrising or sunsetting here, James," and
David sighed heavily and wiped away the tender mist from his sight.

James looked at the old man with some contempt; he himself had been
born and reared in one or other of the closest and darkest streets of
the city. The memories of his loveless, hard-worked childhood were
bitter to him, and he knew nothing of the joy of a boyhood spent in
the hills and woods.

"Life is the same everywhere, Mr. Cameron. I dare say there is as much
sin and as much worry and care among the mountains as on the Glasgow
pavements."

"You may 'daur say' it, James, but that winna mak it true. Even in
this warld our Father's house has many mansions. Gang your way up and
up through thae grand solitudes and ye'll blush to be caught worrying
among them."

And then in a clear, jubilant voice he broke into the old Scotch
version of the 121st Psalm:

"I to the hills will lift mine eyes
from whence doth come mine aid;
My safety cometh from the Lord,
who heaven and earth hath made."

And he sang it to that loveliest of all psalm tunes, Rathiel's "St.
Mary's." It was impossible to resist the faith, the enthusiasm, the
melody. At the second bar Christine's clear, sweet voice joined in,
and at the second line James was making a happy third.

"Henceforth thy goings out and in
God keep for ever will."

"Thae twa lines will do for a 'Gude-night,'" said David in the pause
at the end of the psalm, and James rose with a sigh and wrapped his
plaid around him.

CHAPTER II.

James had gone int