_ After long waiting, Allister came home. Shenac and Hamish had no intention of watching the going out of the old year and the coming in of the new; but they lingered over the fire, talking of many things, till it grew late. And while they sat, the door opened, and Allister came in. They did not know that he was Allister. The dark-bearded man lingering on the threshold was very little like the fair-faced youth who had left them four years ago. He made a step forward into the room, and said,--
"This is Hamish, I know; but can this be our little Shenac?" And then they knew him.
It would be vain to try to describe the meeting. The very happiest meeting after years of separation must be sorrowful too. Death had been among them since Allister went, and the bereavement seemed new to the returned wanderer, and his tears fell as he listened to the few words Hamish said about his father's last days.
When the first surprise and joy and sorrow were a little abated, Shenac whispered,--
"And Evan--Hamish, should we go to-night to tell Angus Dhu that Allister has come home?"
"What about Evan, Allister?" said Hamish.
"Do you not know? Did you not get my letter? I waited for Evan. He had been robbed and hurt, and thought himself dying. But it was not so bad as that. He is better now--quite well, I think. I left him at his father's door."
"At home! Evan at home! What did his father say? Did you see Angus Dhu?"
Shenac was quite breathless by the time her questions were asked.
"No; I could not wait. The field between there and here seemed wider to me than the ocean. When I saw the light, I left him there." And the manly voice had much ado to keep from breaking into sobs again as he spoke.
"His father has been so anxious. No letter has come to us since Evan's came to his father to say that he was dying. I wish the old man had been prepared," said Shenac.
"Oh, I am grieved! If I had but thought," said Allister regretfully.
"It is quite as well that he was not prepared," said Hamish. And he was right.
Shenac Dhu told them about it afterwards.
"My mother went to the door, and when she saw Evan she gave a cry and let the light fall. And then we all came down; and my father came out of his bed just as he was, and when he saw my mother crying and clinging about the lad, he dropped down in the big chair and held out his hands without saying a word. You may be sure Evan was not long in taking them; and then he sank down on his knees, and my father put his arms round him, and would not move--not even to put his clothes on," continued Shenac Dhu, laughing and sobbing at the same time. "So I got a plaid and put about him; and there they would have sat, I dare say, till the dawn, but after just the first, Evan looked pale and weary, and my father said he must go to bed at once. 'But first tell us about your cousin Allister,' my father said. Evan said it would take him all night, and many a night, to tell all that Allister had done for him; and then my father said, 'God bless him!' over and over. And I cannot tell you any more," said Shenac Dhu, laughing and crying and hiding her face in her hands.
"But as to my father being prepared," she added gravely, after a moment's pause, "I am afraid if he had had time to think about it, it would have seemed his duty to be stern at first with Evan. But it is far better as it is; and he can hardly bear him out of his sight. Oh, I'm glad it is over! I know now, by the joy of the home-coming, how terrible the waiting must have been to him."
Very sad to Allister was his mother's only half-conscious recognition of him. She knew him, and called him by name; but she spoke, too, of his father and Lewis, not as dead and gone, but as they used to be in the old days when they were all at home together, when Hamish and Shenac were little children. She was content, however, and did not suffer. There were times, too, when she seemed to understand that he had been away, and had come home to care for them all; and she seemed to trust him entirely that "he would be good to Hamish and the rest when she was no more."
"Folk get used to the most sorrowful things at last," said Shenac to herself, as, after a time, Allister could turn quietly from the mother, so broken and changed, to renew his playful sallies with his brothers and little Flora. Indeed, it was a new acquaintance that he had to make with them. They had grown quite out of his remembrance, and he was not at all like the brother Allister of their imaginations; but this making friends with one another was a very pleasant business to them all.
He had to renew his acquaintance with others too--with his cousins and the neighbours. He had much to hear and much to tell, and after a while he had much to do too; and through all the sayings and doings, the comings and goings,--of the first few weeks, both Hamish and Shenac watched their brother closely and curiously. Apart from their interest in him as their brother whom they loved, and in whose hands the future of all the rest seemed to lie, they could not but watch him curiously. He was so exactly like the merry, gentle, truthful Allister of old times, and yet so different! He had grown so strong and firm and manly. He knew so many things. He had made up his mind about the world and the people in it, and could tell his mind too.
"Our Allister is a man!" said Shenac, as she sat in the kitchen one night with Shenac Dhu and the rest. The words were made to mean a great deal by the way in which they were spoken, and they all laughed. But her cousin answered the words merely, and not the manner:--
"That is not saying much. Men are poor creatures enough, sometimes."
"But our Allister is not one of that kind," said Dan, before his sister had time to answer. "He
is a man. He is made to rule. His will must be law wherever he is."
Dan had probably some private reason for knowing this better than the rest, and Shenac Dhu hinted as much. But Dan took no notice, and went on,--
"You should hear Evan tell about him. Why, he saved the lives of the whole band more than once, by his firmness and wisdom."
"I have heard our Evan speaking of him," said Shenac Dhu, her dark eyes softening, as she sat looking into the fire; "but if one is to believe all that Evan says, your Allister is not a man at all, but--don't be vexed, Dan--an angel out of heaven."
"Oh, I don't know about that part of it," said Dan; "but I know one thing: he'll be chief of the clan, boss of the shanty, or he'll know the reason why.--O Shenac, dear, I'm sorry for you; your reign is over, I doubt. You'll be farmer-in-chief no longer."
The last words were spoken with a mingled triumph and pathos that were irresistible. They all laughed.
"Don't be too sorry for me, Dan," said his sister. "I'll try to bear it."
"Oh yes, I know: you think you won't care, but I know better. You like to rule as well as Allister. You'll see, when spring comes, that you won't put him aside as you used to put me."
"There won't be the same need," said Shenac, laughing.
"Won't there? It is all very fine, now that Allister is new. But wait and see. You won't like to be second-best, after having been first so long."
Both Hamish and Shenac Dhu were observing her. She caught their look, and reddened a little.
"Do you think so, Shenac Dhu?--You surely cannot think so meanly of me, Hamish?"
"I think there may be a little truth in what Dan says, but I cannot think meanly of you because of that," said Hamish.
"Nonsense, Hamish!" said Shenac Dhu; "you don't know anything about it. It is one thing to give up to a lad without sense, like Dan, but quite another thing to yield to a man like Allister, strong and wise and gentle. You are not to make Shenac afraid of her brother."
"I shall never be afraid of Allister," said Shenac Bhan gravely; "and indeed, Hamish, I don't think it is quite kind in you to think I like my own way best of all--"
"I did not mean that, Shenac," said her brother.
"But you are afraid I will not like to give up to Allister. You need not--at least, I think you need not," she added meditatively. "I shall be glad and thankful to have our affairs managed by stronger hands and a wiser head than mine."
"If stronger and wiser could be found, Shenac, dear," said a new voice, and Shenac's face was bent back, while her brother kissed her on the cheek and lip. "Uncle Angus thinks it would not be easy to do that."
They were all taken aback a little at this interruption, and each wondered how much he had heard of what had been said.
"Have you been long here, Allister?" asked Dan.
"No; I came this minute from the other house. Your mother told me you were here, Shenac Dhu."
"Did you hear what we were saying?" asked Dan, not content to let well alone.
"No; what was it?" said Allister surprised, and a little curious.
"Oh, you should have heard these girls," said Dan mischievously. "Such stuff as they have been talking!"
"The chief of the clan, and the boss of the shanty," said Hamish gravely; "and that was you, Dan, was it not?"
"Oh! what I said is nothing. It was the two Shenacs," said Dan.
Shenac Dhu, as a general thing, was able enough to take her own part; but she looked a little shamefaced at the moment, and said nothing.
"What did they say, Dan?" asked Allister, laughing.
Shenac Dhu need not have feared. Dan went on to say,--
"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." _