acksmith shop in the Sixteenth, and Ranald struck him and knocked him
flat, and he could not get up for a long time. Yankee has been showing
him how. I am going to learn, mother," interjected Hughie. "And then
Angus McGregor took Ranald's part, and it was all arranged after church,
and Ranald was bound to be in it, and said he would stop the whole thing
if not allowed. Don said he was just terrible. It was an awful fight.
Angus McGregor fought Peter McRae, Aleck's brother, you know and--"

"Never mind, Hughie," said his mother. "I don't want to hear of it. It
is too disgusting. Was Ranald much hurt?"

"Oh, he was hurt awful bad, and he was going to be licked, too. He
wouldn't keep cool enough, and he wouldn't use his legs."

"Use his legs?" said his mother; "what do you mean?"

"That's what Don says, and Yankee made him. Yankee kept calling to him,
'Now get away, get away from him! Use your legs! Get away from him!' and
whenever Ranald began to do as he was told, then he got the better of
Aleck, and he gave Aleck a terrible hammering, and Don said if Macdonald
Bhain had not stopped them Aleck McRae would not have been able to walk
home. He said Ranald was awful. He said he never saw him like he was
that day. Wasn't it fine, mother?"

"Fine, Hughie!" said his mother. "It is anything but fine. It is simply
disgusting to see men act like beasts. It is very, very sad. I am very
much disappointed in Ranald."

"But, mother, Ranald couldn't help it. And anyway, I am glad he gave
that Aleck McRae a good thrashing. Yankee said he would never be right
until he got it."

"You must not repeat what Yankee says," said his mother. "I am afraid
his influence is not of the best for any of those boys."

"Oh, mother, he didn't set them on," said Hughie, who wanted to be fair
to Yankee. "It was when he could not help it that he told Ranald how to
do. I am glad he did, too."

"I am very, very sorry about it," said his mother, sadly. It was a
greater disappointment to her than she cared to acknowledge either to
her husband or to herself.

But the commotion caused in the community by the fight was soon
swallowed up in the interest aroused by the opening of the new church,
an event for which they had made long and elaborate preparation. The big
bazaar, for which the women had been sewing for a year or more, was held
on Wednesday, and turned out to be a great success, sufficient money
being realized to pay for the church furnishing,