"Anything you ask I will do."
"It is to let Jamie live here, he is more likely to be well employed, less likely to get in wrong courses, than at the Glaze. Alas! I cannot be with him always and everywhere, and I cannot trust him there. Here he has his occupation; he can help you with the birds. There he has nothing, and the men he meets are not such as I desire that he should associate with. Besides, you know, uncle, what occurred last night, and why I am anxious to get him away."
"Yes," answered the old man; "I'll do my best. He shall be welcome here."
"Moreover, Captain Coppinger dislikes him. He might in a fit of anger maltreat him; I cannot say that he would, but he makes no concealment of his dislike."
"Send Jamie here."
"And then I can come every day and see him, how he is getting on, and can encourage him with his work, and give him his lessons as usual."
"It will always be a delight to me to have you here."
"And to me—to come." She might have said, "to be away from Pentyre," but she refrained from saying that. With a faint smile—a smile that was but the twinkle of a tear—she held out her hand to say farewell.
Uncle Zachie clasped it, and then, suddenly, she bent and kissed his hand.
"You must not do that," said he, hastily.
She looked piteously into his eyes, and said, in a whisper that he alone could hear—"I am so lonely."
When she was gone the old man returned to the ingle nook and resumed his pipe. He did not speak, but every now and then he put one finger furtively to his cheek, wiped off something, and drew very vigorous whiffs of tobacco.
Nor was Oliver inclined to speak; he gazed dreamily into the fire, with contracted brows, and hands that were clenched.
A quarter of an hour thus passed. Then Oliver looked up at his father, and said: "There is worse wrecking than that of ships. Can nothing be done for this poor little craft, drifting in fog—aimless!—and going on to the rocks?"
Uncle Zachie again wiped his cheek, and in his
