After long waiting, Allister came home. Shenac and Hamish had no
intention of watching the going out of the old year and the coming in of
the new; but they lingered over the fire, talking of many things, till
it grew late. And while they sat, the door opened, and Allister came
in. They did not know that he was Allister. The dark-bearded man
lingering on the threshold was very little like the fair-faced youth who
had left them four years ago. He made a step forward into the room, and
said,--
"This is Hamish, I know; but can this be our little Shenac?" And then
they knew him.
It would be vain to try to describe the meeting. The very happiest
meeting after years of separation must be sorrowful too. Death had been
among them since Allister went, and the bereavement seemed new to the
returned wanderer, and his tears fell as he listened to the few words
Hamish said about his father's last days.
When the first surprise and joy and sorrow were a little abated, Shenac
whispered,--
"And Evan--Hamish, should we go to-night to tell Angus Dhu that Allister
has come home?"
"What about Evan, Allister?" said Hamish.
"Do you not know? Did you not get my letter? I waited for Evan. He
had been robbed and hurt, and thought himself dying. But it was not so
bad as that. He is better now--quite well, I think. I left him at his
father's door."
"At home! Evan at home! What did his father say? Did you see Angus
Dhu?"
Shenac was quite breathless by the time her questions were asked.
"No; I could not wait. The field between there and here seemed wider to
me than the ocean. When I saw the light, I left him there." And the
manly voice had much ado to keep from breaking into sobs again as he
spoke.
"His father has been so anxious. No letter has come to us since Evan's
came to his father to say that he was dying. I wish the old man had
been prepared," said Shenac.
"Oh, I am grieved! If I had but thought," said Allister regretfully.
"It is quite as well that he was not prepared," said Hamish. And he was
right.
Shenac Dhu told them about it afterwards.
"My mother went to the door, and when she saw Evan she gave a cry and
let the light fall. And then we all came down; and my father came out
of his bed just as he was, and when he saw my mother crying and clinging
about the lad, he dropped down in the big chair and held out his hands
without saying a word. You may be sure Evan was not long in taking
them; and then he sank down on his knees, and my father put his arms
round him, and would not move--not even to put his clothes on,"
continued Shenac Dhu, laughing and sobbing at the same time. "So I got
a plaid and put about him; and there they would have sat, I dare say,
till the dawn, but after just the first, Evan looked pale and weary, and
my father said he must go to bed at once. `But first tell us about your
cousin Allister,' my father said. Evan said it would take him all
night, and many a night, to tell all that Allister had done for him; and
then my father said, `God bless him!' over and over. And I cannot tell
you any more," said Shenac Dhu, laughing and crying and hiding her face
in her hands.
"But as to my father being prepared," she added gravely, after a
moment's pause, "I am afraid if he had had time to think about it, it
would have seemed his duty to be stern at first with Evan. But it is
far better as it is; and he can hardly bear him out of his sight. Oh,
I'm glad it is over! I know now, by the joy of the home-coming, how
terrible the waiting must have been to him."
Very sad to Allister was his mother's only half-conscious recognition of
him. She knew him, and called him by name; but she spoke, too, of his
father and Lewis, not as dead and gone, but as they used to be in the
old days when they were all at home together, when Hamish and Shenac
were little children. She was content, however, and did not suffer.
There were times, too, when she seemed to understand that he had been
away, and had come home to care for them all; and she seemed to trust
him entirely that "he would be good to Hamish and the rest when she was
no more."
"Folk get used to the most sorrowful things at last," said Shenac to
herself, as, after a time, Allister could turn quietly from the mother,
so broken and changed, to renew his playful sallies with his brothers
and little Flora. Indeed, it was a new acquaintance that he had to make
with them. They had grown quite out of his remembrance, and he was not
at all like the brother Allister of their imaginations; but this making
friends with one another was a very pleasant business to them all.
He had to renew his acquaintance with others too--with his cousins and
the neighbours. He had much to hear and much to tell, and after a while
he had much to do too; and through all the sayings and doings, the
comings and goings,--of the first few weeks, both Hamish and Shenac
watched their brother closely and curiously. Apart from their interest
in him as their brother whom they loved, and in whose hands the future
of all the rest seemed to lie, they could not but watch him curiously.
He was so exactly like the merry, gentle, truthful Allister of old
times, and yet so different! He had grown so strong and firm and manly.
He knew so many things. He had made up his mind about the world and
the people in it, and could tell his mind too.
"Our Allister is a man!" said Shenac, as she sat in the kitchen one
night with Shenac Dhu and the rest. The words were made to mean a great
deal by the way in which they were spoken, and they all laughed. But
her cousin answered the words merely, and not the manner:--
"That is not saying much. Men are poor creatures enough, sometimes."
"But our Allister is not one of that kind," said Dan, before his sister
had time to answer. "He _is_ a man. He is made to rule. His will must
be law wherever he is."
Dan had probably some private reason for knowing this better than the
rest, and Shenac Dhu hinted as much. But Dan took no notice, and went
on,--
"You should hear Evan tell about him. Why, he saved the lives of the
whole band more than once, by his firmness and wisdom."
"I have heard our Evan speaking of him," said Shenac Dhu, her dark eyes
softening, as she sat looking into the fire; "but if one is to believe
all that Evan says, your Allister is not a man at all, but--don't be
vexed, Dan--an angel out of heaven."
"Oh, I don't know about that part of it," said Dan; "but I know one
thing: he'll be chief of the clan, boss of the shanty, or he'll know the
reason why.--O Shenac, dear, I'm sorry for you; your reign is over, I
doubt. You'll be farmer-in-chief no longer."
The last words were spoken with a mingled triumph and pathos that were
irresistible. They all laughed.
"Don't be too sorry for me, Dan," said his sister. "I'll try to bear
it."
"Oh yes, I know: you think you won't care, but I know better. You like
to rule as well as Allister. You'll see, when spring comes, that you
won't put him aside as you used to put me."
"There won't be the same need," said Shenac, laughing.
"Won't there? It is all very fine, now that Allister is new. But wait
and see. You won't like to be second-best, after having been first so
long."
Both Hamish and Shenac Dhu were observing her. She caught their look,
and reddened a little.
"Do you think so, Shenac Dhu?--You surely cannot think so meanly of me,
Hamish?"
"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.