eil Scarpa. "I would as lief
tread on the tongs, or meet a cat when going fishing as have Jan
Vedder in my boat," said John Halcro. This feeling against him was
worse than shipwreck. It drove Jan to despair. After a night of hard
drinking, the idea of suicide began to present itself, with a
frightful persistence. What was there for him but a life of dislike
and contempt, or a swift unregretted death.

For it must be considered that in those days the ends of the earth had
not been brought together. Emigration is an idea that hardly enters a
Shetlander's mind at the present time; then it was a thing unknown.
There were no societies for information, or for assistance. Every man
relied upon his own resources, and Jan had none. He was in reality, a
soul made for great adventures, condemned to fight life in the very
narrowest lists.

When the warm weather came, he watched for Margaret, and made many
attempts to see her. But she had all the persistence of narrow minds.
She had satisfied herself that her duty to her father and to her son
was before all other duties, and no cruelty is so cruel as that which
attacks its victims from behind the ramparts of Duty and Conscience.

Thora frequently saw Jan, and he pleaded his cause eloquently to her.
She was very sorry for him, and at times also very angry with him. She
could not understand how Margaret's treatment should have taken all
the heart and purpose out of his life. She would not let him say so;
it was like casting the blame of all his idleness and dissipation upon
her daughter. She would make no effort towards a reconciliation; while
Margaret held him in such small estimation, she was sure that there
could be no permanence in one, even if it could be effected.

Yet once or twice she spoke to Margaret in Jan's favor. If Margaret
had desired to disobey her father, and see her husband, Thora's
sympathies would have been with her; but no mother likes to put
herself in a position which will give her child an opportunity of
answering her with a look of reproachful astonishment. Something very
like this had met her suggestion that "Jan must love his child, and
long to see him."

Margaret was almost angry at such a supposition. "Jan love his
child! It was impossible! No man who did so, would behave as Jan
had done, and was still doing. To encourage Jan in any way was to
disobey her father, and throw herself and her child upon Jan's
mercies. She knew what they were. Even if she