said, and the aunt had wanted to take her to the
seashore, but she had said that nothing but the Oro air would do her
any good, and Kirsty was expecting her some of these days.

Scotty drew a deep breath. She was coming back then! She would be at
the Grange, she might even come to Kirsty's! And then Kirsty herself
darted in and snatched the pitcher of buttermilk from Granny's hands
and disappeared as quickly. Neither of them noticed her, for Scotty
was in a rosy but hopeless dream, and Granny was patting him lovingly
upon the arm in expression of the sympathy she dared not speak. There
was silence for a moment, the old woman still caressing him tenderly.

"Eh, it would be the Lord would be bringing you back to me, _m' eudail
bheg_," she said at last. "He would be good to Malcolm and me in our
old age, for you would jist be our Benjamin, whatever. And has it been
well with Granny's boy all this weary time?" she added in a whisper.

Scotty put his hands upon her shoulders and looked long into her loving
eyes.

"Granny," he whispered, "do you remember the first day I went to
school, and how I came through the swamp alone on the way home."

"Eh, the wee man it was! And how would I be forgetting, indeed, for it
would be the first time you would be leaving me!"

"And do you remember what I found a comfort then? The swamp was so
lonely it frightened me, and I thought it must be like the valley of
the shadow of death; so I said over the Shepherd's Psalm, because you
had taught it to me and I knew it must be good, and I wasn't afraid any
more. And now I've been away from you again, Granny, in the valley of
the shadow of death, yes, and worse than death often, but--the rod and
the staff were always with me."

The tears were running down the old wrinkled face, happy tears, for
Granny had feared often for her boy; not so much the temporal ills; the
arrow that flieth by day was not to her so dangerous as the "secret
fear." But her fears had been happily disappointed, he had had the
great Keeper with him, and one more joy was added to her deep content.

The celebration at Big Malcolm's lasted half the night, and before it
had ended Scotty found he had yet one more draught to drink from his
cup of happiness. The assembly was sitting round him breathless as he
related the many incidents of his journey, when Weaver Jimmie, who was
sitting in the doorway to allow his feet to hang in the greater freedom
of outdoors, su