her father and Mr.
Menteith, when the latter had spoken of great changes impending over
quiet Cairnforth: how a steamer was to begin plying up and down the loch
--how there were continual applications for land to be feued--and
how all these improvements would of necessity require the owner of the
soil to take many a step unknown to and undreamed of by his forefathers
--to make roads, reclaim hill and moorland, build new farms, churches,
and school-houses.

"In short, as Mr. Menteith said, the world is changing so fast that the
present Earl of Cairnforth will have any thing but the easy life of his
father and grandfather.

"Did Mr. Menteith say that?" cried the earl, eagerly.

"He did, indeed; I heard him."

"And did he seem to think that I should be able for it?"

"I can not tell," answered truthful Helen. "He said not a word one way
or the other about your being capable of doing the work; he only said
the work was to done."

"Then I will try and do it."

The earl said this quietly enough, but his eyes gleamed and his lips
quivered.

Helen laid her hand upon his, much move. "I said you were brave--
always; still, you must think twice about it, for it will be a very
responsible duty--enough, Mr. Menteith told papa, to require a man's
whole energies for the next twenty years."

"I wonder if I shall live so long. Well, I am glad, Helen. It will be
something worth living for."

Chapter 7

Malcolm's saying that "if my lord taks a thing into his heid he'll do't,
ye ken," was as true now as when the earl was a little boy.

Mr. Mentieth hardly knew how the thing was accomplished--indeed, he
had rather opposed it, believing the mere physical impediments to his
ward's overlooking his own affairs were insurmountable; but Lord
Cairnforth contrived in the course of a day or two to initiate himself
very fairly in all the business attendant upon the "term;" to find out
the exact extent and divisions of his property, and to whom it was
feued. And on term-day he proposed, though with an evident effort which
touched the old lawyer deeply, to sit beside Mr. Menteith while the
tenants were paying their rents, so as to become personally known to
each of them.

Many of these, like Dougal Mac Dougal, were over come with surprise,
nay, something more painful than surprise, at the sight of the small
figure which was the last descendant of the noble Earls of Cairnforth,
and with whom the stalwart father and the fa