course, during these first days of his weakness his sister Elspie
nursed him. She would, if permitted, have done so night and day, but in
this matter she had to contend with one who was more than a match for
her. This was Old Peg, the faithful domestic.

"No, no, dearie," said that resolute old woman, when Elspie first
promulgated to her the idea of sitting up all night with Duncan, "you
will do nothin' of the sort. Your sainted mother left your father an'
Fergus an' yourself to my care, an' I said I would never fail you, so I
can't break my promise by letting you break your health. I will sit up
wi' him, as I've done many a time when he was a bairn."

It thus came to pass that Elspie nursed her brother by day, and Old Peg
sat up with him at night. Of course the duties of the former were
considerably lightened by the assistance rendered by various members of
the family, as well as friends, who were ever ready to sit by the
bedside of the wounded man and read to or chat with him. At such times
he was moderately cheerful, but when the night watches came, and Old Peg
took her place beside him, and memory had time to commence with him
undisturbed, the deed of which he had had been guilty was forced upon
him; Conscience was awakened, and self-condemnation was the result.
Yet, so inconsistent is poor humanity that self-exculpation warred with
self-condemnation in the same brain! The miserable man would have given
all he possessed to have been able to persuade himself that his act was
purely one of self-defence--as no doubt to some extent it was, for if he
had not fired first Perrin's action showed that he would certainly have
been the man-slayer. But, then, young McKay could not shut his eyes to
the fact that premeditation had, in the first instance, induced him to
extend his hand towards his gun, and this first act it was which had
caused all the rest.

Often during the wakeful hours of the night would the invalid glance at
his nurse with a longing desire to unburden his soul to her, but
whenever his eye rested on her calm, wrinkled old visage, and he thought
of her deafness, and the difficulty of making her understand, he
abandoned his half-formed intention with a sigh. He did not, indeed,
doubt her sympathy, for many a time during his life, especially when a
child, had he experienced the strength and tenderness of that.

After attending to his wants, it was the habit of Old Peg to put on a
pair of tortoise-she