"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,
passing 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
circumstances 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 pass 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."
"But the two Shenacs were never unfriendly?" said Allister
incredulously.
"No," said Dan; "I don't think they ever were. Partly because Shenac
yonder did not believe all I said, I suppose, and partly because she was
vexed herself with her father. Oh yes, they are fast friends, the two
Shenacs. You should have seen them the night Angus Dhu came to speak to
my mother about the letter that came from Evan. Our Shenac was as proud
of you as a hen is of one chicken, though she did not let the old man
see it; and Shenac Dhu was as bad, and said over and over again to her
father, `I told you, father, that Allister was good and true. He'll
never leave Evan; don't be afraid.' I doubt Evan was a wild lad out
yonder, Allister."
"Not wilder than many another," said Allister gravely. "But it is a bad
place for young men, Dan. Evan was like a brother to me always."
"You were a brother to him, at any rate," said Dan.
"We were like brothers," said Allister.
"Oh, well, it's all right, I daresay," said Dan. "It has come out like
a story in a book, you both coming home together. And, Allister, I was
wrong about our Shenac in one thing. She does not mind in the least
letting you do as you like. She seems all the better pleased when you
are pleased; but she was hard on me, I can tell you."
"That's queer, too," said Allister, with a look in his eyes that made
Dan laugh in spite of himself.
"Oh yes, I know what you are thinking: that there is a difference
between you and me. But there is a difference in Shenac too."