Daniel
wouldna' have been here to think upon _me_."

Duncan made no reply, and for some time remained quite silent. Then he
spoke again.

"Peg, what wass it that you would be reading to me last night--something
about a malefactor, I'm thinking."

"Ay, it was about the robbers that was crucified on each side o' the
Lord. One o' them reviled the Lord as he was hangin' there, the other
found forgiveness, for he was led to see what a lost sinner he was, and
repented and confessed his sins."

"That is fery strange," said Duncan, after a few moments' thought. "Do
you think, Peg, that the robber that was forgiven wass a--a murderer?"

"I have little doubt o't," answered Peg, "for I've heard say that they
think very little o' human life in them Eastern countries. But whatever
he was, the blood of Jesus Christ was able to cleanse him."

"Ay, but if he was a murderer, Peg, he did not _deserve_ to be
forgiven."

"My bairn," said the old woman, with something of motherly tenderness in
her tone, "it's not them that _deserve_ to be forgiven that _are_
forgiven, but them that see that they _don't_ deserve it. Didna' this
robber say that he was sufferin' for his sins justly? That, surely,
meant that he deserved what he was getting, an' how is it possible to
deserve both condemnation an' forgiveness at the same time? But he
believed that Jesus was a king--able and willing to save him though he
did _not_ deserve it, so he asked to be remembered, and he _was_
remembered. But lie down now, bairn, an' rest: Ye are excitin'
yoursel', an' that's bad for ye."

A week or so after the conversation above recorded, Dan brought a
wheel-chair for Duncan, similar to the one he had made for his father.
As Duncan had been getting out of bed for several days before, Dan found
him dressed and sitting up. He therefore lifted him into the chair at
once, and wheeled him out into the garden, where a blaze of warm
sunshine seemed to put new life into the poor invalid.

It had been pre-arranged that old McKay should be brought down that same
day to his new room, and that he should also be wheeled into the garden,
so as to meet his son Duncan, without either of them being prepared for
the meeting.

"I don't feel at all sure that we are right in this arrangement," Elspie
had said; but Dan and Fergus, and Mrs Davidson and Jessie had thought
otherwise, so she was overruled.

Archie was deputed to attend upon Duncan junior, and Little Bill