again, Shenac Bhan."

Shenac Bhan's cheek was crimsoned.

"I never cast it up to you, Shenac Dhu," said she hastily. "I never
spoke to any one but himself; and I was sorry as soon as I said it."

"You need not be. He thought none the worse of you, after the first
anger. But, Shenac, my father is not so hard a man as folk think. I do
believe he is less glad for the money than he is for Allister and you
all. If Evan would only come home! My father has so set his heart on
Evan."

Though Shenac took the matter quietly as far as the rest of the world
was concerned, she "emptied her heart" to Hamish. To him she confessed
she had grown a little doubtful of Allister.

"But, Hamish, I shall never doubt or be discouraged again. If Allister
only comes safe home to my mother and to us all, I shall be content. We
are too young, Hamish. It does not harm you, I know; but as for me, I
am getting as hard as a stone, and as cross as two sticks. I shall be
glad when the time comes that I can do as I am bidden again."

Hamish laughed. "Are you hard, Shenac, and cross? Well, maybe just a
little sometimes. I am not afraid for you, though. It will all come
right, I think, in the end. But I am glad Allister is coming home, and
more glad for your sake than for all the rest."

CHAPTER TWELVE.

It is May-day again--not so bright and pleasant as the May-day two years
ago, when Hamish and Shenac sat so drearily watching Angus Dhu's
fence-building. They are sitting on the same spot now, and the children
are under the big willow, sailing boats as they did that day--all but
Dan. You could not make him believe that he had done such a foolish
thing as that two years ago. Two years! It might be ten for the
difference they have made in Dan. He only came back from the Grand
River two days ago, and Shenac has not ceased wondering and laughing at
the change in him. It is not merely his new-fashioned coat and
astonishing waistcoat that have changed him. He has grown amazingly,
and his voice is almost always as deep and rough as Angus Dhu's; and the
man and the boy are so blended in all he says and does, that Shenac has
much ado to answer him as gravely as he expects.

"Hamish," he called out from the top of the fence on which he was
sitting, "you are a man of sense, and I want to ask you a question.
Whose fence is this that I am sitting on? Is it ours, or Angus Dhu's?"

Hamish had not considered the question. Indeed, D