hae seen men coming sailing in frae far-away parts, happy and cheerie, thinking o' their hames, seized before they could reach them-in the very sight of their wives, sweethearts, and bairns, and torn off without being able to speak a word o' comfort and encouragement to the sair hearts they were leaving behind. What wi' shipwrecks, battles, and foreign prisons, few ever come back."

"Woes me," said Mrs. Nelson sadly, "how long will God allow such despotism and cruelty to prevail in the land?"

"We canna tell, nor can we question the dealings o' the Almighty."

"And do you think," inquired Mrs. Nelson," that Mr. Arthur would harbour friends here that would seize on the sailors of his own town?"

"I canna answer for him," was the reply, “I never thought much of him, an' I pity the young thing that's to marry him, for oh! Mrs. Nelson, she wants the blythe look on her face we would expect ane to hae in sic circumstances. I hae my ain doubts if she cares for him; it was only the night she passed me in the lobby, and I could see tears on her cheeks, and yet he's a likely lad to take a lassie's e'e."

"Ah! Reuben," exclaimed Mrs. Nelson, laughing, an old bachelor like you is not learned in women's hearts. It is not the fairest face that takes the

fancy, and the face is aye the fairest we love the best; if all tales are true, there is one whose little finger is dearer to Miss Lilian than all Mr. Arthur's body-and his lands into the bargain.”

"Weel, you women folk beat a' for hearing thae kind o' things," replied Reuben;" and if there's a lovestory ye'll ferret it out; but what's the cross there, for true love is aye crossed, they say."

Money, Reuben, money, the root of all evil!" retorted his friend. "The minister's son is poor, and the laird's son is rich, and the properties lie unto each other; but it's hardly safe to speak of these things."

"Quite safe with me," was the answer, "and where I may say it, I dinna think Mr. Arthur would care whether he has her love or no, if he gets her broad acres."

“The more's the pity for the poor young lady," said Mrs. Nelson, "for it needs all the love of the heart to make marriage happy, and enable the couple to bear one another's burdens. Well, if we did not know there was one reigning in the heavens, we would lose faith altogether, so strange are the things happening around us; and she is such a gentle, kindly girl, too, one would have thought everybody would have loved her. The family here seem all to do so, but her sister, Reuben, I don't fancy her; I only wish she and not Miss Lilian had been Mr. Arthur's

choice. And so she was once, but then Miss Lilian had the money, which Mr. Arthur prizes (you see it was through Miss Lilian's mother the money came). Miss Arbuthnot hates Miss Lilian, they say, not only because she has money, but because of Mr. Arthur; and if she did not think (so it is said) that they would be unhappy if they were married, she would put her foot through it. The way I know all this is that, before I came here, I was housekeeper with a friend of the Arbuthnots, and Miss Lilian often comes here to have a chat with me about old times. But what makes you think Mr. Arthur does not care for Miss Lilian? We quite understand why she does not care for him."

"For much the same reason," answered Reuben. "You have na been sae lang amongst us, to ken our stories weel. Mr. Arthur would fain have made up to Effie Martin, the smith's daughter at Grey Craigs, the bonniest lassie in a' thae parts; but Effie had been ower weel trained by her father, honest man, to take up wi' him; she wad ken little gude would come o't. Besides, she liked another. However, I do believe Mr. Arthur had a wark wi' Effie, as much as his selfish nature would let him."

"Effie Martin is going to be married soon to young Gordon, they say," was Mrs. Nelson's remark. Well, he is a more suitable match for her than

Mr. Arthur, though even he is too far above her in rank."

"Aye, but they kent each other since they were bairns," said the butler; and then he told Mrs. Nelson the story of Mrs. Martin's death, and the care the boy took of the infant.

After some further talk the two friends separated for the night, but it was long before sleep visited Mrs. Nelson's pillow; and when she did sleep it was to dream fearful dreams which the conversation of Reuben had suggested; and always in these dreams were mingled thoughts of her brother's son, of whom for years she had lost all trace, but whom she had known and loved dearly as a child.

CHAPTER XXI.

"The bride she was baith young and fair,
Her neck outshone her features rare;
A satin snood bound up her hair,

And flowers amang her breast-knots.

"The bridegroom gazed, but mair I ween
He prized the glance o' love's saft een,
That made him proud o' his sweet Jean
When she put on her breast-knots."

HE Dissenting manse at Grey Craigs was a
plain two-storied building, overshadowed

by a few large trees which separated it from the primitive-looking meeting-house at its side. A close-clipped yew hedge surrounded the garden in front of the house, in which was seen a promise of floweriness when spring winds should blow over the frost-hardened earth; for already, through the partially softened soil, the green spikes of the crocus were shooting up in thick tufts, and the pale snowdrop was lifting its head in the sunshine.

The window of the little parlour in which the minister, his wife, and their only child, a boy of about five years old, were seated, overlooked the