aschal, he will care little how I talk. He'll
hae finer folk than Christine, to crack and claver wi'."

"He will not find finer folk easily. Now run home as quickly as you
can, and prepare your father and mother for the Ballister visit. I
will come with him, and ask your mother to have a cup of tea by the
fire for us."

"Will Angus be wi' ye, Sir?"

"No, he will not."

"Why?"

"Because I am going to send him to the factor's, and also to Lawyer
Semple's. You need not be looking for him. Try and leave well alone.
It is hard to make well better, and it is very easy to make it worse.
If you hurry a little, I think you may be home by twelve o'clock."

So Christine hurried a little, and reached home by the noon hour. Her
dinner was ready, and her father very unexpectedly was sitting by the
fireside.

"Feyther," she said, "I hope you arena sick," and then she smiled at
the inquiry, for his broad, rosy face was the very picture of robust
health.

"Sick! Na, na, lassie! I'm weel enou', but Norman was feeling badly.
His arm hurts him sairly, and I was noticing that the fish had gane to
deep waters. We'll hae a storm before long."

Then Christine served the dinner waiting for her, and while they were
eating, she told the great news of a school for Culraine. Ruleson was
quickly enthusiastic. Margot, out of pure contradiction, deplored the
innovation.

The walk to the toun, she said, was gude for the childer. If they were
too tired to learn after it, it showed that learning was beyond their
capabilities, and that they would be better making themsel's usefu' at
hame. And what were women with large families to do without their big
lads to bring water to wash wi', and their half-grown lasses to tak'
care o' the babies, and help wi' the cooking and cleaning?

"But, Margot," said Ruleson, "think o' the outcome for the
childer----Think o'----"

"Ye dinna require to tell me the outcome. As soon as the childer get
what they ca' an education, they hurry awa' to some big city, or
foreign country, and that's the end o' them. Settle a school here, and
I'll tell you the plain result--in a few years we'll hae neither lads
nor boats, and the lasses now growing up will hae to go to Largo, or
to some unkent place for husbands. Gie our lads books, and you'll
ne'er get them into the boats. That's a fact! I'm tellin' you!"

Between Margot and Christine the argument continued all afternoon, but
Ruleson went to the foot of the hill, and