Year: 1878

W htu Wdut YOU W uO Is W uldTTy IQo,
sir,' he said, with an energy increasing
with every sentence. "To marry me
tomorrow night, sir. To marry me at
her house, sir. To marry me, sir, to
Mrs. McGregor!''


The enthusiasm of my aged friend cul-
minated uponthe last announcement, as
well it might. Mrs. McGregor! was
almost a boy myself in those days, had
just got through reading Sir Walter
Scott, and this last-named lady was to
me as if she had stepped out of one of
those volumes into real life. l have not
the least idea of how old she then was;
nor had any one else. She was white
haired, with q beautifully clean and
clear complexion, and was always dress
ed as for church whenever I had seen
her; at least, in some dark stuff, which
seemed new, with sort of mob cap and
arrangement of muslin about her throat
and brows, snowy in hue and full of
frilling and plaits. But this was merely
the framing for the lady herself. She
had such bright eye and quick tongue,
was so decided in her opinions upon all
subjects and had SO crisp a way
of stating them, that she made
the same lasting impression upon my
memory that new and sharply cut
die does when it is stamped upon wax.
And there was an energetic enforcement
of herself upon you which you had no
wish to resist. Mrs. McGregor had
come from Scotland to that frontier
country there was no telling how long
before; she had been married there was
no saying how often; she was possessed
of nobody knew how much property,
besides the home she lived in by herself.
Owing to long separation from the
church of her childhood, she had, / fear,
become somewhat negligent as to her
religious duties. A fact flashes upon me
this moment which had forgotten since
the day it occurred. Happening to at
tend the funeral of friend, she had
been so affected by the solemnities of
the occasion that she had united herself
to my church, and the week after GER


tain lady, also an old settler, had asked
me: ''Did your voice tremble, sir, when
| YOU read out her name from the pulpitp
People say it did," And then, with
mysterious meaning: 81 wouldn't
| blame you!"


But this makes it necessary that |
should make word of explanation be-
| fore proceeding. A certain estimable
friend of mine, General Murdock, had
introduced me, on my first coming to
the place, to almost every inhabitant in
turn. After almost every such intro


duction he was sure to remark, as soon


as we were out of hearing: "Now, that


is man who had history before COM


ing here.'' AS his only explanation was


's A history, tell you, sir ~ was left


in the dark as to details. He had GER


tainly had has history before coming, as


I happened to know; but he was, like


most of the people there, that much the


better worth knowing. During years


of acquaintance [, at least, came to like


them, too, the longer they were known.


AS rule, the past was let alone there.


True, when you were introduced to a


new conner, after asking s'Where are


you from, sirp" it was standing joke


to add: And what was it you did there,


sir? In the case, however of Mrs. Nc
4 Gregor the reference was purely to the


exercise of a certain yigor on the good


lady's part in days past, for which she


was not more to be blamed than


are her countrymen for Ban


nockburn. 1t was impossible


not to become very much attached


to Mrs. McGregor. Certainly a more
original person one does not otter


meet. She was so shrewdlyt sensible
striking at the very heart of matters il
. all she said.


1t was an event to dine with her, after


special invitation. She lived in a double
log cabin, it is true; but it was white
i washed until marble could not have beer
/ whittier and the prim yard in front was
| radiant with flowers. No other house
keeper could make the oaken floors Sc
t clean; the reddened fireplace so bright
filled as it was in summer with ever
| greens; the rag carpet and oval mats
: woven of many-colored strips, 81
3 smooth, as was the case in her house
5 The door of the corner cupboard in tn


parlor was aiar, so that you could Sc
> how much silver there remained owe
= and above that used upon the table
[ And what dinner it was! So grea


was theevariety, every thing was cooke'
, so much better than anywhere else. Sh
81 was SO importunate in her hospitalit
2 that the choice was hard one to max
: between an illness from having airead
q indulged too freely and the risk of Of
d tending her by decling TO eat any more
j. But the best ofsthe feast to me were th
? Scotch words, which had never befor
Z met with outside of Scott and Burns
Y words treasured by her during a
these years, like old coins, more car,
h fully than were her teaspoons and th
l. fashions of her caps and frills.


If My pleasantest surprise was the nigl
of her ,flarriape She was about II