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"God grant he may be a better!" said Macdonald Bhain, reverently. "If he be as good," said his brother, kindly, "I will be content; but I will not be here to see it." "Whisht, man," said his brother, hastily. "You are not to speak such things, nor have them in your mind." "Ah," said Macdonald Dubh, sadly, "my day is not far off, and that I know right well."
After Long John passed out, followed by the family, Macdonald Bhain entered the room, closed the lid down upon the dead face, and gave the command to bear him forth. So, with solemn dignity, as befitted them, they carried Big Mack from his home to Farquhar McNaughton's light wagon.
But ever since calamity had befallen him, the boy's heart had gone out to his father in a new tenderness, and the last months had drawn the two very close together. It was a dark day for Ranald when he was forced to face the fact that his father was growing daily weaker. It was his uncle, Macdonald Bhain, who finally made him see it.
"Indeed, that is her very word," said Black Hugh. "She could not say that," said his brother, "for it is not the Word of God." "Yes, yes. That is true," assented Macdonald Bhain. "But, by the grace of God, you will forgive, and you will be forgiven." "Forgive!" cried Black Hugh, his face convulsed with passion. "Hear me!" he raised his hand to heaven. "If I ever forgive "
Of all the shanty-men of the Ottawa the men of Glengarry, and of Glengarry men Macdonald's gang were easily first, and of the gang Donald Bhain Macdonald, or Macdonald More, or the Big Macdonald, for he was variously known, was not only the "boss" but best and chief. There was none like him.
As he finished his cut, his brother called to him, "That is no work for you, Hugh; that is no work for a man who has been for six weeks in his bed." "It is work that must be done, however," Black Hugh answered, bitterly. "Give me the ax," said Macdonald Bhain. He mounted the tree as his brother stepped down, and swung his ax deep into the wood with a mighty blow. Then he remembered, and stopped.
It did him good to look into the face of the great Macdonald Bhain once more, and to hear his deep, steady voice welcome him home. It was the face and the voice of a man who had passed through many a sore battle, and not without honor to himself. And it was good, too, to receive the welcome greetings of his old friends and to feel their pride in him and their high expectation of him.
And so, when the Macdonald gang went to the woods that winter, Ranald, taking his father's ax, went with them. And so clever did the boy prove himself that by the time they brought down their raft in the spring there was not a man in all the gang that Macdonald Bhain would sooner have at his back in a tight place than his nephew Ranald.
You will be following me, lad?" The anxious note in his voice struck Ranald to the heart. "Oh, father, it is what I want," he replied, brokenly. "I will try." "Aye," said Macdonald Dubh, "and you will come. I will be telling HER. Now lay me down, Tonal; I will be going." Macdonald Bhain laid him quietly back on his pillow, and for a moment he lay with his eyes closed.
Beat him, I say, but Macdonald Bhain says 'Tied him' Aleck McRae, who thinks himself so mighty smart with his team." Don forgot in his excitement that the McRaes and their friends were there in numbers. "So he is," cried Annie Ross, one of Aleck's admirers. "There is not a man in the Indian Lands that can beat Aleck and his team." "Well," exulted Don, "a boy came pretty near it to-day."
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