So she sang, not too loud; for the boys were at the barn and she would never hear the end of it.
“Well, Bella, you are getting your cows home. How are you, my dear?”
Bella turned with a scarlet face to meet the minister's wife, and her blushes only became deeper when she saw Ranald, for she felt quite certain that Ranald would understand the meaning of her song.
“I will go on with the cows,” said Ranald, in a hoarse voice, and Mrs. Murray, alighting, gave him her pony to lead.
Peter McGregor was a stern man to his own family, and to all the world, with the single exception of his only daughter, Bella. His six boys he kept in order with a firm hand, and not one of them would venture to take a liberty with him. But Bella had no fear of his grim face and stern ways, and “just twiddled her father round her finger,” as her mother said, with a great show of impatience. But, in spite of all her petting from her big brothers and her father, Bella remained quite unspoiled, the light of her home and the joy of her father's heart. It had not escaped the father's jealous eye that Big Mack Cameron found occasion for many a visit to the boys on an evening when the day's work was done, and that from the meetings he found his shortest way home round by the McGregor's. At first the old man was very gruff with him, and was for sending him about his business, but his daughter's happy face, and the light in her eyes, that could mean only one thing, made him pause, and after a long and sleepless night, he surprised his daughter the next morning with a word of gentle greeting and an unusual caress, and thenceforth took Big Mack to his heart. Not that any word or explanation passed between them; it had not come to that as yet; but Big Mack felt the change, and gave him thenceforth the obedience and affection of a son.
The old man was standing in the yard, waiting to help with the milking.
Ranald drove the cows in, and then, tying up the horses, went straight to him.
“I bring bad news, Mr. McGregor,” he said, anxious to get done with his sad task. “There has been an accident on the river, and Mack Cameron is drowned.”
“What do you say, boy?” said Peter, in a harsh voice.
“He was trying to save a Frenchman, and when they got him out he was dead,” said Ranald, hurrying through his tale, for he saw the two figures coming up the lane and drawing nearer.