"Come hame, lass," said McCook, and shook himself as a horse will shake on a cold day; "there is a goose on my grave too," said he, and laughed and kissed her.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
WHAT CAME OF THE PLOY.
Bryde and Margaret would be aye at their planning, and the lass with a glamour of joy at the sewing and marking of linen; and whiles it would seem that Bryde himself was forgot, but there would be times when they would be away for hours together, the lass with her two arms clinging to his, and laughing up into his face, and the folk would be smiling to be just seeing her, for it was as though her love was so good and great a power that she must be kind to the whole world.
"Why will you be loving me?" she would cry, and stand, her great blue eyes all loving.
"My dear," Bryde would say, "the day grows brighter when you are with me; there is peace in my heart and gladness. The flowers are more beautiful and the sea is grander. Och, I cannot be telling you in words."
"I will be content and listen; this is the way of it with me," and she put her hand to her breast. "There is something here that will grow when you are near me, and I am telling myself that will be my happiness choking me. Am I not the daft lass?"
And little Hamish would be with them often, and Dan and Belle were proud folk, but walking soberly for fear of too much happiness; but once when we watched the father and his two sons coming home, and the young boy between them, begging to be lifted and swung across little pools. Belle spoke—
"Hamish, keep guard," she said in that droll fashion that belonged to her. "Once when I was young there was a dream of evil came on me, but I am forgetting it—I am forgetting."
"I will be loath to part with Bryde," said Dan. "We were long strangers; but, Hamish, my heart cannot hold the love I will have for him, and maybe when Hamish Og is grown he will go to Bryde's place, and Bryde will be coming home. I would be wishing to see a grandson."