Shenac gave an impatient sigh.

"But, Shenac," said her brother, "there is no use in fretting about it; that will do no good."

"No; if only one could help it," said Shenac.

"Shenac, my woman," said the mother from the other side of the fire, "I doubt you'll need to go to The Eleventh to-morrow for the dye-stuffs. I am not able to go so far myself, I fear."

The townships, or towns, of that part of the country are all divided off into portions, a mile in width, called concessions; and as the little cl.u.s.ter of houses where the store was had no name as yet, it was called The Eleventh; and indeed, all the different localities were named from the concession in which they were found.

"There is no particular hurry about going, I suppose, mother," Shenac answered indifferently.

"The sooner the better," said her mother. "The things are as well here as there, and we'll need them soon. What is to hinder you from going to-morrow?"

"If the morning is fair, I'll need Shenac's help at the hay, mother,"

said Dan with an air.

"I'll need Shenac's help!" It might have been Angus Dhu himself, by the way it was said, Shenac thought. It was ludicrous. Her mother did not seem to see anything ludicrous in it, however; for she only answered,--

"Oh yes, Dan; if it should be fair, I suppose I can wait." Hamish was busy with his book again.

"It's a very heavy crop," continued Dan. "It is all that a man can do to cut yon gra.s.s and keep at it steady."

Of course Dan did not mean to take the credit of the heavy crop to himself, but it sounded exactly as if he did; and there was something exceedingly provoking to Shenac in the way in which he stretched himself up when he said, "all that a man can do." A laughing glance that came to her over the top of Hamish's book dispelled her momentary anger, however.

"If Hamish does not mind, I'm sure _I_ need not," she said to herself.

Dan went on:--"I shall put what I have cut to-day in the long barn. It will be just the thing for the spring's work."

Dan's new-found far-sightedness was too much for the gravity of Hamish, and Shenac joined heartily in the laugh. Dan looked a little discomfited.

"You must settle it with Shenac and your brother," said the mother.

"All right, Dan, my boy," said Hamish heartily; "it's always best to look ahead, as Mr Rugg would say.--What do you think, Shenac?"

"All right; only you should not say 'my boy' to our Dan, but 'my man,'"

said Shenac gravely.

Even little Flora could understand the joke of Dan's a.s.suming the airs of manhood, and all laughed heartily. Dan joined in the laugh good-humouredly enough.

"You see, Shenac," said Hamish, during the few minutes they always lingered together after the others had gone to bed, "Dan may be led, but he will not be driven--at least, not by you or me."

"Led!" exclaimed Shenac; "I think he means to lead us all. That scythe has made a man of him all at once. I declare it goes past my patience to hear the monkey."

"It must not go past your patience if you can help it, Shenac," said her brother. "All that nonsense will be laughed out of him, but it must not be by you or me."

"Oh, well, I'm not caring," said Shenac. "I only hope it will be fair to-morrow, so that I can get to help him. I could mow as well as he, if my mother would let me. However, it's all the same whether I help him or he helps me, so that the work is done some way."

"We'll all help one another," said Hamish. "Shenac, you were right the other day when you told me I was wrong to murmur because I could not do more than G.o.d had given me strength to do. It does not matter what work falls to each of us, so that it is well done; and we can never do it unless we keep together."

"No fear, Hamish, bhodach, we'll keep together," said Shenac heartily.

"I do hope to-morrow may be fine."

CHAPTER SEVEN.

But to-morrow was not fine; it was quite the contrary. Shenac milked in the rain, and gathered vegetables for dinner in the rain, and would gladly have made hay all day in the rain, if that had been possible.

Not a pin cared Shenac for the rain. It wet her face, and twined her hair into numberless little rings all over her head, and that was the very worst it could do. It could not spoil her shoes, for in summer she did not wear any, unless she was in the field; and it took the rain a long time to penetrate through the thick woollen dress she always wore in rainy weather. Indeed, she rather liked to be out in the rain, especially when there was a high wind, against which she might measure her strength; and she was just going to propose to her mother that she should set out to The Eleventh for the dye-stuffs, when the door opened, and her cousin Shenac came in.

Rain or shine, Shenac Dhu was always welcome, and quite a chorus of exclamations greeted her.

"Toch! what about the rain! I'm neither salt nor sugar to melt in it,"

she said, as Shenac Bhan took off her wet plaid and drew her towards the fire. "I must not stay," she continued.--"Hamish, have you done with your book? Mr Rugg stayed at our house last night, and he's coming here next, and so I ran over the field to see his pretty things.--O Shenac, he has such a pretty print this time--blue and white."

"But could you not see his pretty things last night? And are you to get a dress of the blue and white?" asked Shenac Bhan.

"Of course I could see them, but I could not take a good look at them because my father was there. He thinks me a sensible woman, and I can't bear to undeceive him; and my eyes have a trick of looking at pretty things as though I wanted them, and that looks greedy. But I'm not for a dress of the blue and white. Mysie Cairns in The Sixteenth has one, and that's enough for one township."

"But Mr Rugg will not open his packs here; we want nothing," said Shenac Bhan, "unless he may have dye-stuffs for my mother."

"He has no dye-stuffs--you'll get that at The Eleventh," said Shenac Dhu; "but it's nonsense about not wanting anything. I'll venture to say that Mr Rugg will leave more here than he left at our house, or at any house in the town-ship. I wish he would come."

They all had plenty to say to Shenac Dhu, but that her mind was full of other things it was easy to see. She laughed and chatted, but she watched the window till the long, high waggon of the peddler came in sight, and then she drew Shenac Bhan into a corner and kept her there till the door opened.

"Good-morning, good-morning," said the peddler as he came in. Glancing round the room, he stood still on the door-mat with a comical look of indecision on his face. "I don't suppose you want to see me enough to pay for the tracks I shall make on the floor," he said to Shenac Bhan.

"I don't know as I should have come round this way this time, only I've got something for you--something you'll be glad to have."

Everybody was indignant at the idea of his not coming in.

"Never mind the floor," said Shenac Bhan. "We don't want anything to-day, but we are glad to see you all the same."

"Don't say you don't want anything till you see what I've got," said Mr Rugg gravely. "I ha'n't no doubt there's a heap of things you would like, if you could get them. Now, a'n't there?"

"She wants a wig, for one thing," said Shenac Dhu.

"Well, no; I calculate she'll get along without that as well as most folks. I don't see as you spoiled your looks, for all Mrs More said,"

he added, as he touched with his long forefinger one of the little rings that cl.u.s.tered round Shenac's head. "Come, now, a'n't there something I've got that you want?" he asked as Shenac turned away with an impatient shrug.

"No; not if you haven't a wig. Do we want anything, mother? It is not worth while to open your box in the rain."

Mr Rugg was already out of hearing.

"We can look at them, at any rate," said Shenac Dhu. But Shenac Bhan looked very much as if she did not intend to do even that, till the door opened again, and Mr Rugg walked in, followed by Dan, and between them they carried a spinning-wheel.

"A big wheel, just like Mary Matheson's!" exclaimed Shenac Bhan.

"No; a decided improvement upon that," said Mr Rugg, preparing to put on the rim and the head. The band was ready, too; and he turned the wheel and pulled out an imaginary thread with such gravity that all laughed. "Well, what do you think of it, girls?" he asked after a little time. "Will you have it, Miss Shenac?"

"I should like to borrow it for a month," said Shenac with a sigh.