al a request that Elspie was somewhat alarmed by
it, as well as surprised--all the more so that the old man left the room
without finishing either his pipe or glass. Still, she did not suppose
that anything serious would come of it. A night's rest, she thought,
would do away with the evils of the shock.

"Dear father," she said, as she kissed him at parting, "do believe that
God is waiting to be gracious: that He really means it when He says,
`Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.' And, consider--we have no reason to suppose that dear
Duncan's wound is very dangerous."

"Goot-night, Elspie," was all the reply.

Next morning McKay did not make his appearance at the usual
breakfast-hour, and, on going to his room, they found him lying
speechless in his bed, suffering under a stroke of paralysis.

He soon recovered the power of speech, but not the use of his limbs, and
it became evident ere long that the poor man had received a shock which
would probably cripple him for life. Whatever may have been his secret
thoughts, however, he carefully concealed them from every one, and
always referred to his complaint as, "this nasty stiff feeling about the
legs which iss a long time of goin' away--whatever."

In a few days, Fergus returned from the plains, bringing his brother in
a cart, which had been made tolerably easy by means of a springy couch
of pine-branches. They did not tell him at first of his father's
illness, lest it should interfere with his own recovery from the very
critical condition in which he lay. At first he took no notice of his
father's non-appearance, attributing it to indifference; but when he
began slowly to mend, he expressed some surprise. Then they told him.

Whatever may have been his thoughts on the subject, he gave no sign, but
received the information--as, indeed, he received nearly all information
at that time--in absolute silence.

Fortunately, the bullet which struck him had passed right through his
side, so that he was spared the pain, as well as the danger, of its
extraction. But, from his total loss of appetite and continued
weakness, it was evident that he had received some very severe, if not
fatal, internal injury. At last, very slowly, he began to grow a little
stronger, but he was a very shadow or wreck of his former self.
Nevertheless, the more sanguine members of the family began to entertain
some faint hope of his recovery.

Of