.
We need Hamish to scold us and set us right. Why should we be afraid?
If there was any cause for fear there would be plenty to tell us of it.
Nobody seems afraid for them except my father; and it is not fear with
him. He has never settled down in the old way since the letter came
saying that Allister would bring Evan home."

Yes, they needed Hamish more than they knew. It was the anxiety for the
mother, the sleepless nights and unoccupied days, that, all together,
unnerved Shenac Bhan. It was the dwelling on the same theme, the going
over and over the same thing--"nothing would happen to him?"--"he would
be sure to come?"--till the words seemed to mock her, they made her so
weary of hoping and waiting.

For, indeed, nobody seemed to think there was anything strange in the
longer stay of Allister. He had stayed so long and done so well, he
might be trusted surely to come home when the right time came. No,
there was no real cause for fear, Shenac repeated to herself often. If
her mother had been well and quite herself, and if Hamish had been at
home, she thought she would never have fallen into this miserable dread.

She was partly right. It was better for them all when Hamish came home.
He was well, for him, and cheerful. He had never imagined how sadly
the time was passing at home, or he would not have stayed away so long.
He was shocked at the wan looks of the two girls, and quite unable to
understand how they should have grown so troubled at a few weeks' or
even a few months' delay. His wonder at their trouble did them good.
It could not be so strange--the silence and the delay--or Hamish would
surely see it. The mother was better too after the return of Hamish.
The sight of him, and his pleasant, gentle talk, gave a new turn to her
thoughts, and she was able again to take an interest in what was going
forward about her; and when there came a return of the old restlessness
and pain, it was Hamish who stayed in the house to soothe her and to
care for her, while Shenac betook herself with her old energy to the
harvest-field.

The harvest passed. Dan kept very steady at it, though every night he
went to the new kirk, where the meetings were still held. He did not
say much about these meetings even when questioned, but they seemed to
have a wonderful charm for him; for night after night, wet or dry, he
and Angus Dhu's man, Peter, walked the four miles that lay between them
and the new kirk to hear--"Wha