Year

and mo

hich I th

thies toc

Swarm

y-kindres

de by side

God and p Lord Alfe yself, bring r and next periment

Olly. Itkr

if the on ess, were to: ote. Other

Paradise R wastef

on these lin

bless tha

of those C

illennium

n see!

ave elapsed? menced at C

the weak a ment is a fil call Old

there is t

six feet tall

THE NEW LAIRD

341

strapping Girls of his own, marching proudly to Kirk and Market at his side. The Lady at Tinlie mothers a big Family there at Home; and she is, besides, a sort of second Mother,-not a GodMother, that's a stupid conglomerate, but a Godsent Mother, to most other Families in Castlebraes.

How she manages to weave her affections into and around all these Homes, so diverse in everything, is to me an abiding mystery. But the fact stands beyond question,-that if she were taken from us, there is not a Boy or Girl, not a Father or Mother, known to me in all these bounds, who would not lie down with almost as sore a heart as my own. Much as Lord Alfred has done, and much as I have tried, —much as I may owe to my Village Cabinet and my old College Chum,-much as may be due to our isolation from certain evils of the time, and to our possession of a breed of Human Beings, physically capable of at once being raised, - much as may be credited to any or all of these causes for the elevation and regeneration of Castlebraes, — it is my own indestructible faith that the Home Life at Tinlie Tower, which was created by Heather Bell, and the magnificent inspiration which her example and her presence breathed into everything that was making for the better and the nobler WAY OF LIFE, in every single Family and throughout the whole of our Community, was the mightiest force, next to the blessing of Almighty God, in every victory we have won, or have the hope of still winning, throughout the glorious Social Reform of the Age soon to be.

The Regeneration of Mankind is to be achieved by influences such as these; or never till the crack of doom.

That way lies the Bay Leaf, that never fades from the brow,—and the Laurel Crown that shall outlast the Stars.

I had found at last the meaning of the enigmatical capitals—one in each corner of the shield-on the Tinlie Coat of Arms. This was, after all, the

VERA GLORIA VITE HUMANE.

GLOSSARY

Principal Scotch words and Scotch spellings used in this Volume.