er
again, with the difference between June and December, which removed the
feasting-place from the lawn to the great kitchen of the Castle, and
caused bonfires on the hill-tops to be a very doubtful mode of
jubilation. The old folk--young then--who remembered the bright
summer festival of twenty-four years ago told many a tale of that day,
and how the "puir wee earl" came forward in his little chair and made
his brief speech, every word and every promise of which his after life
had so faithfully fulfilled.

"The heir's a wise-like lad, and a braw lad," said the old folks of the
clachan, patronizingly. "He's no that ill the noo, and he'll aiblins
grow the better, ye ken; but naibody that comes after will be like him.
We'll ne'er see anither Earl o' Cairnforth."

The same words which Mr. Menteith and the rest had said when the earl
was born, but with what a different meaning!

Lord Cairnforth came back among his own people amid a transport of
welcome. Though he had been long away, Mrs. Bruce and other assistants
had carried out his plans and orders so successfully that the estate had
not suffered for his absence. In the whole extent of it was now little
or no poverty; none like that which, in his youth, had startled Lord
Cairnforth into activity upon hearing the story of the old shepherd of
Loch Mhor. There was plenty of work, and hands to do it, along the
shores of both lochs; new farms had sprung up, and new roads been made;
churches and schools were built as occasion required; and though the
sheep had been driven a little higher up the mountains, and the deer and
grouse fled farther back into the inland moors, still Cairnforth village
was a lovely spot, inhabited by a contented community. Civilization
could bring to it no evils that were not counteracted by two strong
influences--(stronger than any one can conceive who does not
understand the peculiarities almost feudal in their simplicity, of
country parish life in Scotland)--a minister like Mr. Cardross, and a
resident proprietor like the Earl of Cairnforth.

The earl arrived a few days before the festival day, and spent the time
in going over his whole property from one end to the other. He took
Mrs. Bruce with him. "I can't want you for a day now, Helen," said he,
and made her sit beside him in his carriage, which, by dint of various
modern appliances, he could now travel in far easier than he used to do,
or else asked her to drive him in the old famil