Shenac's Work at Home Part 5

"We have all been busy this summer," said Shenac; "but our hurry is over now for a while."

Heedless of the little pools that were shining here and there, they went first into the garden, and then round the other buildings, and over to the spot, still black and charred, where the house had stood. But little was said by either of them.

"Do you like living in the city?" said Shenac at last.

"For some things I like it--for most things, indeed; but sometimes I long for a sight of the fields and woods, more for my wee Mary's sake than for my own."

"This is our wool," said Shenac, as they entered the barn; "I wish it was spun."

"Shenac," said her cousin kindly, "have you not undertaken too much?

It's all very well for you to speak of Hamish and Dan, but the weight must fall on you. I see that plainly."

But Shenac would not let her think so.

"I only do my share," said she eagerly.

"I think you could have helped them more by coming to M--- and taking a situation. You could learn to do anything, Shenac, if you were to try."

But Shenac would not listen.

"We must keep together," said she; "and the land must be kept for Allister. There is no fear. We shall not grow rich, but we can live, if we bide all together and do our best."

"Shenac," persisted her cousin, "I do not want to discourage you; but there are so many things which a girl like you ought not to do--cannot do, indeed, without breaking your health. I know. I was the eldest at home. I know what there is to do in a place like yours. The doctor tells me I shall never be quite well again, because of the long strain of hard work and exposure when I was young like you. Think, if your health was to fail."

Shenac turned her compa.s.sionate eyes upon her.

"But your father was hard on you, folks say, and I have the work at my own taking."

Mrs More shook her head sadly.

"Ah, Shenac dear, circ.u.mstances may be far harder on you than ever my father was on me. You do not know what may lie before you. No girl like you should have such responsibility. If you will come with me or follow me, you and Hamish, I can do much for you. You could learn to do anything, Shenac, and Hamish is very clever. There are places where his littleness and his lameness would not be against him, as they must be on the land. Let my father take Dan, as he wished, and let Hughie go to the elder's for a while. The land can lie here safe enough till Allister comes home, if that is what you wish. Indeed, Shenac, you do not know what you are undertaking."

"Cousin Christie," said Shenac gently, "you are very kind, but I cannot leave my mother; and I am strong--stronger than you think. Christie, you speak as though you thought Allister would never come home. Was our Allister a wild lad, as your father says? Surely, he'll come home to his mother, now that his father is dead."

She sat down on the pile of wool, and turned a very pale, frightened face to her cousin. Mrs More stooped down and kissed her.

"My dear," she said gently, "Allister was not a wild lad in my time, but good and truthful--one who honoured his parents. But, Shenac, the world is wide, and there are so many things that those who have lived in this quiet place all their lives cannot judge of. And even if Allister were to come back, he might not be content to settle down here in the old quiet way. The land would seem less to him than it seems to you."

"But if Allister should not come home, or if he should not stay, my mother will need me all the more. No, Cousin Christie, you must not discourage me. I must try it. And, indeed, it is not I alone. Hamish has so much sense and judgment, and Dan is growing so strong. And we will try it anyway."

"Well, Shenac, you deserve to succeed, and you will succeed if anybody could," said her cousin. "I will not discourage you. I wish I could help you instead."

"You can help me," said Shenac eagerly; "that's what I brought you out to say. Our wool--you are going back soon, and if the waggon goes, will you ask your father to let our wool go to the mill? The carding takes so long, and my mother is not so strong as she used to be. And that is one of the things I cannot abide. The weary little wheel is bad enough.

Will you ask your father, Christie?"

Mrs More laughed.

"That is but a small favour, Shenac. Of course my father will take it, and he'll bring it back too; for, though it is not his usual plan at this time of the year, he's going on all the way to M--- with b.u.t.ter.

There came word yesterday that there was great demand for it. The wool will be done by the time he comes back; and he is to take his own too, I believe."

Shenac gave a sigh of relief.

"Well, that's settled."

"Why did you not ask my father himself?" said Mrs More. "Are not you and he good friends, Shenac?" Shenac muttered something about not liking to give trouble and not liking to ask Angus Dhu. Mrs More laughed again.

"I think you are hard on my father, Shenac. I think he would be a good friend to you if you would let him. You must not mind a sharp word from the like of him. His bark is worse than his bite."

Shenac was inexpressibly uncomfortable, remembering that all the hard words had come from her and not from Angus Dhu.

"Well, never mind," said Mrs More; "the carrying of the wool is my father's favour. What can I do for you, Shenac?"

"You can do one thing for me," said Shenac briskly, glad to escape from a painful subject, and laying her hand on a shining instrument of steel that peeped from beneath the wool on which she was sitting. "You can cut my hair off. My mother does not like to do it, and Hamish won't. I was going to ask Shenac yonder; but you will do it better." And she began to loosen the heavy braids.

"What's that about Shenac yonder?" said that young person, coming in upon them. "I should like to know what you are plotting, you two, together--and bringing in my innocent name too!"

"Nothing very bad," said Shenac, laughing. "I want Christie to cut my hair, it is such a trouble; it takes a whole half-hour at one time or other of the day to keep it neat, and half-hours are precious."

"I don't like to do it, Shenac," said Mrs More.

Shenac Dhu held up her hands in astonishment.

"Cut your hair off! Was the like ever heard of?--Nonsense, Christie!

she never means it; and Hamish would never let her, besides. She'll look no better than the rest of us without her hair," continued she, taking the heavy braids out of Shenac's hands and pushing her back on the pile of wool from which she had risen. "Christie, tell Shenac about John Cameron, as you told us last night."

While Shenac listened to the account of a sad accident that had happened to a young man from another part of the country, Shenac Dhu let down the long, fair hair of her cousin, and, by the help of an old card that lay near, smoothed it till it lay in waves and ripples of gold far below her waist. Then, as Shenac Bhan still sat, growing pale and red by turns as she listened, she with great care rolled the shining ma.s.s into thick curls over neck and shoulders.

"Now stand up and show yourself," said she, as she finished. "Is she not a picture? Christie, you should take her to the town with you and put her up in your husband's shop-window. You would make her fortune and your own too."

Shenac Bhan had this advantage over her cousin, and indeed over most people--that the sun that made them as brown as a berry, after the first few days' exposure left her as fair and unfreckled as ever; and she really was a very pretty picture as she stood laughing and blushing before her cousins. The door opened, and Hamish came in.

"My mother sent me to bid you all come in to tea;" but he stopped as his eye fell on his sister.

"Tea!" cried Shenac Bhan. "I meant to do all that myself. Who would have thought that we had been here so long?" And she made a movement, as if to bind back her hair, that she might hasten away.

"Be quiet; stay till I bid you go," said Shenac Dhu, hastily letting the curls fall again. "I wonder if all the puddles are dried up?--She ought to see herself. Cut them off! The vain creature! Never fear, Hamish."

"Christie is to cut it," said Shenac Bhan, laughing, and holding the wool-shears towards Mrs More. "I must do it, Hamish; it takes such a time to keep it decently neat. My mother does not care, and why should you?"

"Whisht, Hamish," said Shenac Dhu, "you're going to quote Saint Paul and Saint Peter about a woman's hair being a covering and a glory. Don't fash yourself. Why, she would deserve to be a Scots worthy more than George Wishart, or than the woman who was drowned even, if she were to do it!"

"You had your own cut," said Shenac Bhan, looking at her cousin with some surprise. "Why should I not do the same?"

"You are not me. Everybody has not my strength of mind," said Shenac Dhu, nodding gravely.

"Toch! you cut yours that it might grow long and thick like our Shenac's," said Dan, who had been with them for some time. "Think of your hair, and look at this." And he lifted the fair curls admiringly.

Shenac Bhan laughed.