"Man, Hillocks, div ye no see he's gotten back his dochter, and it's made him anither man?"
Lachlan showed Flora a new pair of shears he had bought in Muirtown, and a bottle of sheep embrocation, but she did not know he had hidden his parcel in the byre, and that he opened it four separate times on Saturday.
From daybreak on Sabbath Lachlan went in and out till he returned with Marget Howe.
"Mrs. Howe iss very kind, and she will be coming to help you with your dresses, Flora, for we will be wanting you to look well this day, and here iss some small thing to keep you warm," and Lachlan produced with unspeakable pride a jacket lined with flannel and trimmed with fur.
So her father and Marget dressed Flora for the kirk, and they went together down the path on which the light had shone that night of her return.
There were only two dog-carts in the Free Kirk Session, and Burnbrae was waiting with his for Flora at the foot of the hill.
"I bid ye welcome, Flora, in the name o' oor kirk. It's a gled day for your father, and for us a' tae see you back again and strong. And noo ye 'ill just get up aside me in the front, and Mistress Hoo 'ill hap ye round, for we maunna let ye come tae ony ill the first day yir oot, or we 'ill never hear the end o't." And so the honest man went on, for he was as near the breaking as Drumtochty nature allowed.
"A' body's pleased," said Marget to Lachlan as they sat on the back seat and caught the faces of the people. "This is the first time I have seen the fifteenth of Luke in Drumtochty. It's a bonnie sicht, and a'm thinkin' it's still bonnier in the presence o' the angels."
"Flora Cammil's in the kirk the day," and the precentor looked at
Carmichael with expectation. "The fouk are terrible taen up wi'
Lachlan and her."
"What do you think of the hundred and third Psalm, Robert? It would go well this morning."