nd ane o' my men will bring her hame presently. Never consider
the cow as mine, for a bachelor farmer like me can better afford to want
the siller, than ye can to want yer cow; and I micht hae spent it far
mair foolishly, and wi' less satisfaction. Indeed, if ye only but think
that good I've dune, I'm mair than paid."

"Maister Hardie," said the widow, "what have I, a stranger widow woman,
done to deserve this kindness at your hands? Or how is it in the power
o' words for me to thank ye? HE who provideth for the widow and the
fatherless will not permit you to go unrewarded, though I cannot. O
Margaret, hinny," added she, "thank our benefactor as we ought to thank
him, for I cannot."

Fair Margaret's thanks were a flood of tears.

"Oh, dinna greet!" said Thomas; "I would ten times ower rather no hae
bocht the cow, but hae lost the siller, than I would hae been the cause
o' a single tear rowin' doun yer bonny cheeks."

"O sir," answered the widow, "but they are tears o' gratitude that
distress my bairn, and nae tears are mair precious."

I might tell how Thomas sat down by the peat fire between the widow and
her daughter, and how he took the hand of the latter, and entreated her
to dry up her tears, saying that his chief happiness would be to be
thought their friend, and to deserve their esteem. The cow was brought
back to the widow's, and Thomas returned to Tollishill with his
herdsman. But, from that night, he became almost a daily visitor at the
house of Mrs. Lylestone. He provided whatever she required--all that was
ordered for her. He spoke not of love to Margaret, but he wooed her
through his kindness to her mother. It was, perhaps, the most direct
avenue to her affections. Yet it was not because Thomas thought so that
he pursued this course, but because he wanted confidence to make his
appeal in a manner more formal or direct.

The widow lingered many months; and all that lay within the power of
human means he caused to be done for her, to restore her to health and
strength, or at least to smooth her dying pillow. But the last was all
that could be done. Where death spreadeth the shadow of his wing, there
is no escape from sinking beneath the baneful influence of its shade.
Mrs. Lylestone, finding that the hour of her departure drew near, took
the hand of her benefactor, and when she had thanked him for all the
kindness which he had shown towards her, she added--

"But, O sir, there is one thing that makes t