Shenacs Work at Home | Page 9

least, until Allister came home.
He did not care much what the neighbours might say about him; but he
told Elder McMillan that he cared, and that doubtless yon wild girl
would have plenty: to say about things she did not understand, and that
she would get ill-minded folks enough to hearken to her and to urge her
on. And he tried to make himself believe that it was this, and nothing

else, that vexed him in the matter.
"And what's to be done?" asked the elder uneasily, as Shenac and the
rest disappeared.
"Done!" repeated his friend angrily. "I shall do nought. If they can go
on by themselves, all the better. I shall be well pleased. Why should I
seek to have the land?"
"Why, indeed?" said the elder.
"I shall neither make nor meddle in their affairs, till I am asked to do
it," continued Angus Dhu; but the look on his face said, as plainly as
words could have done, "and it will not be very long before that will
happen."
But he made a mistake, as even wise men will sometimes do.
CHAPTER THREE.
I am glad to say that Shenac did not let the sun go down on her wrath.
Indeed, long before sunset she was heartily ashamed of her outbreak
towards Angus Dhu, and acknowledged as much to Hamish. Not that
she believed he had acted justly and kindly in his past dealings with her
father; nor was she satisfied that the future interests of the family would
be safe in his hands. Even while acknowledging how wrong and foolish
she had been in speaking as she had done, she declared to Hamish that
Angus Dhu should neither "make nor meddle" in their affairs. They
must cling together, and do the best they could, till Allister should
come home, whatever Angus Dhu might say.
That her mother might yield to persuasion on this point, she thought
possible; for the widow had lost courage, and saw only the darker side
of their affairs. But Shenac stoutly declared that day to Hamish that no
one should be suffered to persuade her mother to the breaking of her
heart. No one had a right to interfere in their affairs further than should
be welcome to them all. For her part, she was not afraid of Angus Dhu,
nor of Elder McMillan, nor of any one else, when it came to the

question of breaking up their home and sending them, one here and
another there, away from the mother.
Shenac felt very strong and brave as she said all this to Hamish; and yet
when, as it was growing dark that night, she saw Elder McMillan
opening their gate, her first impulse was to run away. She did not,
however, but said to herself, "Now is the time to stand by my mother,
and help her to resist the elder's efforts to get little Hugh away from
us." Besides, she could not go away without being seen, and it would
look cowardly; so she placed herself behind the little wheel which the
mother had left for a moment, and when the elder came in she was as
busy and as quiet as (in his frequently-expressed opinion) it was the
bounden duty of all young women to be.
Now, there was nothing in the whole round of Shenac's duties so
distasteful to her as spinning on the little wheel. The constant and
unexciting employment for hands and mind that spinning afforded, and
perhaps the pleasant monotony of the familiar humming of the wheel,
always exerted a soothing influence on the mother; and one of the first
things that had given them hope of her recovery after the shock of the
burning of the house was her voluntary bringing out of the wheel. But it
was very different with Shenac. The strength and energy so invaluable
to her in her household work or her work in the fields were of no avail
to her here. To sit following patiently and constantly the gradual
forming and twisting of the thread, did not suit her as it did her mother;
and watchful and excited as she was that night, she could hardly sit
quiet while the elder went through his usual salutations to her mother
and the rest.
He was in no haste to make known his errand, if he had one, and he
was in no haste to go. He spoke in slow, unwilling sentences, as he had
done many times before, of the mysterious dealings of Providence with
the family, making long pauses between. And through his talk and his
silence the widow sat shedding a few quiet tears in the dark, and now
and then uttering a word of reply.
What was the good of it all Shenac would