"I think there may be a little truth in what Dan says, but I cannot think meanly of you because of that," said Hamish.

"Nonsense, Hamish!" said Shenac Dhu; "you don't know anything about it.

It is one thing to give up to a lad without sense, like Dan, but quite another thing to yield to a man like Allister, strong and wise and gentle. You are not to make Shenac afraid of her brother."

"I shall never be afraid of Allister," said Shenac Bhan gravely; "and indeed, Hamish, I don't think it is quite kind in you to think I like my own way best of all--"

"I did not mean that, Shenac," said her brother.

"But you are afraid I will not like to give up to Allister. You need not--at least, I think you need not," she added meditatively. "I shall be glad and thankful to have our affairs managed by stronger hands and a wiser head than mine."

"If stronger and wiser could be found, Shenac, dear," said a new voice, and Shenac's face was bent back, while her brother kissed her on the cheek and lip. "Uncle Angus thinks it would not be easy to do that."

They were all taken aback a little at this interruption, and each wondered how much he had heard of what had been said.

"Have you been long here, Allister?" asked Dan.

"No; I came this minute from the other house. Your mother told me you were here, Shenac Dhu."

"Did you hear what we were saying?" asked Dan, not content to let well alone.

"No; what was it?" said Allister surprised, and a little curious.

"Oh, you should have heard these girls," said Dan mischievously. "Such stuff as they have been talking!"

"The chief of the clan, and the boss of the shanty," said Hamish gravely; "and that was you, Dan, was it not?"

"Oh! what I said is nothing. It was the two Shenacs," said Dan.

Shenac Dhu, as a general thing, was able enough to take her own part; but she looked a little shamefaced at the moment, and said nothing.

"What did they say, Dan?" asked Allister, laughing.

Shenac Dhu need not have feared. Dan went on to say,--

"I have been telling our Shenac that she will have to 'knock under,' now that you are come home; but she says she is not afraid."

"Why should she be?" asked Allister, who still stood behind his sister, pa.s.sing his hand caressingly over her hair.

"Oh, you don't know our Shenac," said Dan, nodding wisely, as though he could give some important information on the subject. The rest laughed.

"I'm not sure that I know anybody's Shenac very well," said Allister gravely; "but in time I hope to do so."

"Oh, but our Shenac's not like the rest of the girls. She's hard and proud, and looks at folk as though she didn't see them. You may laugh, but I have heard folk say it; and so have you, Shenac Dhu."

"No, I never did," said Shenac Dhu; "but maybe it's true for all that: there's Sandy McMillan--"

"And more besides him," said Dan. "There's your father--"

"My father! Oh, he's no mark. He believes Shenac Bhan to be at least fifteen years older than I am, and wiser in proportion. But as for her not seeing people, that's nonsense, Dan."

But Shenac Bhan would have no more of it.

"Shenac Dhu, you are as foolish as Dan to talk so. Don't encourage him.

What will Allister think?"

Shenac laughed, but said no more.

They were right. Allister was a man of the right sort. Whether, if circ.u.mstances had been different, he would have been content to come back and settle down as a farmer on his father's land, it is not easy to say. But as it was, he did not hesitate for a moment. Hamish would never be able to do hard work. Dan might be steady enough by-and-by to take the land; but in the meantime Shenac must not be left with a burden of care too heavy for her. So he set himself to his work with a good will.

He had not come back a rich man according to the idea of riches held by the people he had left behind him; but he was rich in the opinion of his neighbours, and well enough off in his own opinion. That is, he had the means of rebuilding his father's house, and of putting the farm in good order, and something besides. He lost no time in commencing his labours, and he worked, and made others work, with a will. There were among the neighbours those who shook their cautious old heads when they spoke of his energetic measures, as though they would not last long; but this was because they did not know Allister Macivor.

He had not been at home two days before he made up his mind that his mother should not pa.s.s another winter in the little log-house that had sheltered them since his father's death; and he had not been at home ten days when preparations for the building of a new house were commenced.

Before the snow went away, stone and lime for the walls and bricks for the chimneys were collected, and the carpenters were at work on windows and doors. As soon as the frost was out of the ground, the cellar was dug and stoned, and everything was prepared for the masons and carpenters, so that when the time for the farm-work came, nothing had to be neglected in the fields because of the work going on at the new house. So even the slow, cautious ones among the neighbours confessed that, as far as could be judged yet, Allister was a lad of sense; for the true farmer will attend to his fields at the right time and in the right way, whatever else may be neglected.

But the house went on bravely--faster than ever house went on in those parts before, for all things were ready to the workmen's hands.

May-day came, and found Allister and Dan busy in taking down Angus Dhu's fence--at least, that part of it that lay between the house-field and the creek.

"I didn't think the old man meant to let us have these rails," said Dan.

"Not that they are his by rights. I should not wonder if he were down upon us, after all, for taking them away." And Dan put up his hands to shade his eyes, as he turned in the direction of Angus Dhu's house.

"Nonsense, Dan; I bought the rails," said Allister.

Dan whistled.

"If I had been you, I would have taken them without his leave," said he.

"Pooh! and quarrelled with a neighbour for the sake of a few rails."

"But right is right," insisted Dan. "Not that I think he would have made much ado about it, though. The old man has changed lately. I always think the hearing that our Shenac gave him on this very place did him a deal of good."

Dan looked mysterious, and Allister was a little curious.

"I have always told you that you don't know our Shenac. Whether it is your coming home, or my mother's not being well, that has changed her, I can't say. Or maybe it is something else," added Dan thoughtfully. He had an idea that others in the parish were changed as well as Shenac.

"She's changed, anyway. She's as mild as summer now. But if you had seen her when Angus Dhu was making this fence--Elder McMillan was here;"

and Dan went off into a long account of the matter, and of other matters of which Allister had as yet heard nothing.

"Angus Dhu don't seem to bear malice," said he, when Dan paused. "He has a great respect for Shenac."

"Oh yes, of course; so have they all." And Dan launched into a succession of stories to prove that Shenac had done wonders in the way of winning respect. For though he had sometimes been contrary enough, and even now thought it necessary to remind his sister that, being a girl, she must be content to occupy but a humble place in the world, Shenac had no more stanch friend and supporter than he. Indeed, Dan was one who, though restless and jealous of his rights when he thought they were to be interfered with, yielded willingly to a strong hand and rightful authority; and he had greatly improved already under the management of his elder brother, of whom he was not a little proud.

"Yes," continued he, "I think they would have scattered us to the four winds if it had not been for Shenac. She always said that you would come home, and that we must manage to keep together till then. Man, you should have seen her when Angus Dhu said to my mother that he doubted that you had gone for your own pleasure, and would stay for the same.

She could not show him the door, because my mother was there, and he is an old man; but she turned her back upon him and walked out like a queen, and would not come in again while he stayed, though Shenac Dhu cried, and begged her not to mind."

"I suppose Shenac Dhu was of the same mind--that I was not to be trusted," said Allister.

Dan shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, as to that, I don't know. She's only a girl, and it does not matter what she thinks. But how it vexed her to be told what our Shenac said about her father."