rmentor
and the young man was known between the Oa and the Flats as "Ambiguous
Mike." Big Malcolm chuckled audibly and jerked the lines in delight
over the remembrance of his old friend's victory.

The way seemed very short to Scotty, there was so much of interest to
see. Soon they left the Highlands and began to descend into the Glen,
and he found his eyes growing misty again as they dwelt on the winding
white road, the silver curves of the river between the faint green of
the hills, and the cosy homesteads nestled in the budding orchards.

The place was so little changed in the two years he could almost
believe he had never left it. He noticed only one radical difference.
Pete Nash's establishment had disappeared. The tavern had not been
able to withstand the united progress of commerce and righteousness;
Mr. Cameron's advent had heralded its downfall, and the toot of the
railway train through Oro had sounded its death knell.

Big Malcolm had not finished dilating upon the blessing its departure
had been to the community, when they reached the post office. A crowd
stood collected about it, eager but quiet. They hid their concern in
the true rural fashion and stood leaning against every available
support with supreme indifference, shoulders high, hands in pockets,
caps on one side. Store Thompson was more ceremonious. Before Scotty
could alight, out he came with hands outstretched in greeting. He had
prepared an elaborate speech of welcome, adorned with all the available
polysyllables in the dictionary; but, when he saw Scotty's familiar
face, his eyes shining with the joy of his home-coming, and Big
Malcolm, erect and full of fire as though he had suddenly dropped
twenty years of his life, his heart got the better of his head and he
could only shake the voyageur's hand again and again and say:

"Aye, ye're home again. Aye, ye've jist come home, like!"

And then out bustled Store Thompson's wife, who was as blithe and brisk
as she had been twenty years before, and she had no difficulty in
kissing Scotty this time, though she had to stand on tip-toe to do it.

And at last the crowd flung off its lethargy and one by one came
forward in greeting. Dan had already arrived and was resplendent amid
the whole population of the Flats; and not the Flats only, for such a
cosmopolitan crowd had not been seen in the Glen since the old days of
the fights. There were all the Murphys and the Caldwells and, of
course,