“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.”