.
He had a funny sort of remorse for having misjudged her the day she
befooled the sentry to get me off. Business connected with Biddy's death
detained Dennis in Liverpool for a day or two, and as I had not given
any warning of the date of my return to my people, I willingly stayed
with him. My comrades had promised to go home with me before proceeding
on their respective ways, but (in answer to the letter which announced
his safe arrival in Liverpool) Alister got a message from his mother
summoning him to Scotland at once on important family matters, and the
Shamrock fell to pieces sooner than we had intended. In the course of a
few days, Dennis and I heard from our old comrade.

"The Braes of Buie.

"MY DEAR JACK AND DENNIS: I am home safe and sound, though not in time
for the funeral, which (as partly consequent on the breaking of a tube
in one engine, and a trifling damage to the wheels of a second that was
attached, if ye understand me, with the purpose of rectifying the
deficiencies of the first, the Company being, in my humble judgment,
unwisely thrifty in the matter of second-hand boilers) may be regarded
as a dispensation of Providence, and was in no degree looked upon by any
member of the family as a wanting of respect towards the memory of the
deceased. With the sole and single exception of Miss Margaret
MacCantywhapple, a far-away cousin by marriage, who, though in good
circumstances, and a very virtuous woman, may be said to have seen her
best days, and is not what she was in her intellectual judgment, being
afflicted with deafness and a species of palsy, besides other
infirmities in her faculties. I misdoubt if I was wise in using my
endeavours to make the poor body understand that I was at the other
side of the world when my cousin was taken sick, all her response being,
'_they aye say so_.' However, at long and last, she was brought to admit
that the best of us may misjudge, and as we all have our faults, and
hers are for the most part her misfortunes, I tholed her imputations on
my veracity in the consideration of her bodily infirmities.

"My dear mother, thank GOD, is in her usual, and overjoyed to see my
face once more. She desires me to present her respects to both of you,
with an old woman's blessing. I'm aware that it will be a matter of
kindly satisfaction to you to learn that her old age is secured in
carnal comforts through my father's cousin h