Year: 1878

Il
offered to do so and I left the place, inter-
ested in my new acquaintnuces, Jean showing
me a quicker but not so beautiful way home,
across the moor.


CHAPTER II.


The parishioners of whom l was now in
charge lived in widely-scattered houses, and l
could not help often contrasting their lives
with the lives Of my own people in the south.
| There, everything was contracted and small
space was our most needed thing--families
We're huddled together in houses made more
! dirty and wretched by what is called 'com-
mon stair" and which it was therefore no
ones business to keep clean and though an
! inspection was made now and then by SANTA
| ry commissioners and charitable people did
! their best there are thousand ways in which
sanitary laws can be eyaded and charitable
| people, with IA few notable exceptions have
the most unhappy knack of assisting the
! wrong people. Who can blame theml As II
rule the deserving poor are exactly those who
shrink from help, and who, with handful of
meal and hardly potato left, show brave
face to the world, and allow no necessity to
appear.


The very poor are everywhere deserving of
| pity but in the country, fresh air, II little
tirewood, and above all, pure water, are to be
had for nothing. In towns the first is often
not to be got the poor cannot afford to buy
| the second and when think of the water
rate am no political economist have
n most unjust dislike to the man who collects
| the water-mte-and | never could see why
! Gods free gift to man should be sold by
| spoOnfuls at the cost of many lives How
| ever, much is being done, and more will fol-
| low.


Here, in this beautiful place, space was
! quite unlimited; all down the hillside linen
lay bleachingin the sun. Another contrast was
not only the way it was left out all night, but
but in the absence of bolts, bars and shutters
in the houses. Not even the shop had shut
ters, and theft was as unknown there as
! though mounted guard watched necessarily
! over the place.


The shop (there was but one) sold every
imaginable thing, from treacle and herrings
to needles and cheese, and the widow who
| kept the shop was an autocrat in her way.
She was licensed to sell spirits, and it would
| be good for humanity if all licensed individ-
uals' acted on the same firm principles. To
some she positively refused to sell at ALTO
| others she allowed only what she considered
| right for them to have She knew the pri-
vate affairs of each individual, and was guild
| ed by that l have seen her refuse "a dram"
to lanky-looking shepherd who asked for
| one, saying to him in the tone you might use
TO an unreasonable child. "Hoot ava. Sandy
| ye ken weel your head is nae like ither heads
and drap will set it spinning. Ma, ma, man,
gang home, and dinna compare your head
with ithers! :" and the man quietly withdrew
with look of sheepish resignation. To an
other man she said Surely dinna hear ye
rightly it's ma IA dram yere seeking and your
wife sac sober (Which did not refer to sobri-
ety. as might be imagined. but to sickliness.)
When he showed temper. she said, with
change of voice that would have suited an





for you. Mr.. Gran, but you'll get it at the
next shop" which was exactly eleven miles
of. With this carefulness for the welfare of
| her neighbors. she was not Mt all above max
ing n close bargain and | feel convinced
| (and indeed my housekeeper never let me for
get it, that paid more than ought to have
done for some bandAnas that bought at her
shop.


From this woman. who talked upon all sub
jects ron dm0re | heard great deal about
old Mrs. Grant and Jean, and everything l
heard was to the credit of both. The old
woman had been an excellent mother to a
delicate daughter who died of broken heart
on the sudden death of her husband The
only grandchid, Kenneth Malcolm" had
been brought up by the grandmother, and, as
was often the case in Scotland before school
boards came in the way, he had received
first-rate education and had turned out by all
accounts n fine young fellow, steady and
clever.


Mrs Grant had come to Burnside more
than forty years before my first acquaintance
with the place no one knew why she had
come there. or anything about her antece-
dents. 1t was supposed the old laird was ac
quainted with her story, but he had never
told it to any one. He had requested his
nephew and successor to allow her to live out
her life rent free, and in addition TO this, a
90,
unknown source. She was necessarily busy,
and her spinning and knitting were quite ia
NOUS. Jean had gone to her when she was a
well-grown child of ten, and the relations be-
tween them We're more those of mother and
child than of mistress and servant. When
she had been there two or three years misfor-
tunes began to come, and they never come
sngly Widow Grant fell and hurt herself
so much that she did not recover the injury ;
then she had paralytic stroke, and by de-
grees sank into the complete state of help
lessness in which she was when first made
her acquaintance Jeans devotion was un-
ceasing, and her spinning and knitting filled
up the gap when the poor old woman was
helpless. Very confused and various accounts
were given of how and why Kenneth had
gone away. All that people knew for certain
was that JEAN for the first and only time
since she had lived at Burnside, had gone to



meth had left for New Zealand, and that they
had not met.


Not long after his departure, the little sum
of money which made the small household SO
comfortable suddenly ceased and Widow
Grant had refused, in an excited and determ-
ined manner, to allow any inquiries to be
made about it. Jean acquiesced. Their
wants We're very few, but everybody said that
since Kenneth's departure she had not looked
the same and it was evident that, as in all
lifes histories, n romance WAS woven through
it all. Though why, as by all accouns Ken
meth had been 'sair set" ON having her for
his wife. she should have refused him, and
have actually been the cause of his leaving
the country, was beyond the comprehension
of every one.


Ny visits to Burnside became of great in
terest to me. The old woman began TO look
forward to my arrival with much evident
pleasure, and the freshness and originality of
Jeans remarks were very pleasant. She had
read nothing save the pages of nature so Law
ishly distributed round her; but everything
came with such acute observance, and her mind
naturally was so refined, that l used to feel
when with her as if had more to learn from
her than she could learn from me.


CHAPTER III.


shall always remember a certain autumnal
day, not long before left this Highland spot
"a day when the golden haze of an Indian
Summer" filed the air. In valley, stretch
ing away through the hills, some oats were
ready to cut, and a neighboring farmer who
had imported the first reaping machine to
that part of the country, had lent it for the
occasion.