RAB AND HIS FRIENDS.

the right side. We could see her eyes
bright with a surprising tenderness and
joy, bending over this bundle of clothes.
She held it as a woman holds her sucking
child, opening out her night-gown impa-
tiently, and holding it close and brood-
ing over it, and murmuring foolish little
words, as over one whom his mother com-
forteth, and who sucks and is satisfied.
It was pitiful and strange to see her wasted
dying look, keen and yet vague—her im-
mense love.

“ Preserve me!” groaned James, giving
way. And then she rocked back and for-
ward, as if to make it sleep—hushing it,
and wasting on it her infinite fondness.
“ Wae’s me, doctor ; I declare she’s thinkin’
it’s that bairn.” “What bairn?” “The
only bairn we ever had, our wee Mysie ;
and she’s in the Kingdom forty years and
mair.” It was plainly true: the pain in
the breast, telling its urgent story to a be-

33