is, I took him to a shop in the neighborhood to get some clothes for
him, but I couldn't get anything small enough. He _does_ look
ridiculous; but you mustn't laugh at him, for he is like a girl for
sensitiveness. But when he has been fed up a bit, and got some Highland
air into his lungs, his own mother won't know him. And you will get him
some other clothes, Janet--some kilts, maybe--when his legs get
stronger."

Whatever Keith Macleod did was sure to be right in his mother's eyes,
and she only said, with a laugh,--

"Well, Keith, you are not like your brothers. When they brought me home
presents, it was pretty things; but all your curiosities, wherever you
go, are the halt, and the lame, and the blind; so that people laugh at
you, and say that Castle Dare is becoming the hospital of Mull."

"Mother, I don't care what the people say."

"And indeed I know that," she answered.

Their waiting had allowed Hamish and the new gillie to overtake them;
and certainly the latter, deprived of his plaid, presented a
sufficiently ridiculous appearance in the trousers and jacket that were
obviously too big for him. But neither Lady Macleod nor Janet laughed at
all when they saw this starved London waif before them.

"Johnny," said Macleod, "here are two ladies who will be very kind to
you, so you needn't be afraid to live here."

But Johnny did look mortally afraid, and instinctively once more took