you, before I go," he said, as they paused
in the moonlight, "that you were right, after all, Ralph."

"In giving up?" asked Scotty eagerly. "Is it because of what you saw
this afternoon?"

"No; the reward of a right act doesn't always come so suddenly; but
because I have learned something since you went away, something that
your grandmother taught me up there under the Silver Maple. I know now
that when a man has once realised what the Great Sacrifice means he
cannot choose his own way."

And Scotty went up to his old bed in the loft and lay listening to the
branches of the Silver Maple softly caressing the roof, unable to sleep
for joy and thankfulness.

The days that followed were very busy ones. Scotty was often at the
Grange; not altogether because inclination turned his feet thither, but
because there was much business to settle. Lieutenant Herbert wanted
to return soon to England, and he would not leave until his new friend
had received due restitution and more. Scotty wanted nothing; the look
in Isabel's eyes was enough, but Harold would not listen. No, he must
have the Grange and all that pertained to it, he declared; for the
Captain and his sister had long thought of going back to England to end
their days. "So," he concluded, "when you are through that college
course, which it appears you must take, you and Bluebell can settle
down here to farming; and good luck go with you, because I don't envy
you your lot!"

But Scotty and Isabel cared very little whether they were envied or
not. Their own happiness was sufficient.

And so Ralph Stanwell came into his inheritance at last, and by the
right road, the road of truth and equity, which, though it may often
descend by the way of the cross, is sure and straight and leadeth unto
life eternal.

* * * * *

The day before he left to take up his studies in the city, Scotty went
down to the Grange and brought Isabel up, ostensibly to spend the day
with Kirsty, but really because they wanted to say farewell among their
old haunts. The girl had spent the afternoon at Big Malcolm's and as
evening fell and Scotty prepared to take her home, they went round to
the side of the house and sat for a few moments under the Silver Maple.
Lake Oro was a sea of gems flashing between the dusky points of the fir
trees. The hilltops were flushed with rose, the valleys steeped in
purple, and the vesper sparrows filled the golden twilight with