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Tuncan also iss a little better just now, so what say you to have the weddin' the month after next? Mr Sutherland will be back from the Whitehorse Plains by then, an' he can tie the knot tight enough whatever. Anyway, it iss clear that if we wait for a munister o' the Auld Kirk, we will hev to wait till doomsday. What say you, Taniel?"
Before the starving pair had time to get fairly on their legs, Daniel strode into the camp and seized Elspie in his arms. We need not repeat what he said, for it was not meant to be made public, but no such reticence need trouble us in regard to old Duncan. "Hoot! Taniel," said he, somewhat peevishly, "keep your coortin' till efter breakfast, man!
My notion is that we hobble or picket our horses here, and go cautiously forward on foot to see what it is." "You'll be doin' what ye think best, Captain Taniel, an' you will find that private Fergus will back you up whatever."
You will hev to bend your back then, Taniel, for it iss not every wan that can give Fergus McKay the worst of it!" Davidson made no reply, but gave his comrade a shake so violent that it put to flight the last vestige of his good-humour and induced him to struggle so fiercely that in a few minutes the drowsiness was also, and effectually, driven away.
"Here you are," said Dan, taking a lump of the desired article from his wallet and handing it to the impatient man; at the same time giving a morsel to Elspie. "I knew you would want it in a hurry, and kept it handy. Where is Duncan? I thought he was with you." "So he wass, Taniel, when you left us to go to Rud Ruver, but my son Tuncan was never fond o' stickin' to his father.
"It iss ferry hard to believe that a man who has been so long among us, and got such a good character, should suddenly turn against us an' that, too, without provocation. But what will you be sayin' to what Taniel and myself has seen with our two eyes?"
But, Taniel," he added, in a more serious tone, "we must hev one like this made for poor Tuncan." As this was the first reference which McKay had made to his younger son since his illness with the exception of the daily inquiry as to his health it was hailed as an evidence that a change for the better was taking place in the old man's mind.
While the two friends were thus conversing in the dairy, old McKay and Dan Davidson were talking on the same subject in the hall of Ben Nevis. "It iss a curious fact, Taniel," said the old man, with a pleased look, "that it wass in this fery room in the old hoose that wass burnt, and about the same time of the year, too, that you would be speakin' to me about this fery thing.
"It iss as you say, Taniel," remarked the old man, frowning at his pipe, which was not drawing properly. "Marrit life iss more to be desired than single blessedness, whatever, an' it is a my opeenion that you will do more work with Elspie helpin' you, than by yourself. When iss it you will be wantin' to call me your father?"
They had just risen high enough on the prairie wave, which they had been ascending, to be able to see over it, and Dan could perceive by the outstretched neck of his companion that he was gazing intently at something directly in front. "What do you see, Fergus?" he asked in a low voice. "Do you see nothin', Taniel?" was the Highlander's reply. "Why, yes.
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