Sandy shouted in delight. For a brief space a fear had seized him--ofwhich he now felt shame indeed--that his sweet lassie might be about toask for jewels or rich attire; and it would have sorely hurt Sandy'spride inside her had this been so.

"A piano!" he shouted. "An' did ye not think I'd that a'ready in mymind? 0' coorse, a piano, an' every other instrument under the skiesthat ye'll wish, my lass, ye shall have. The more music ye make, thegladder the house'll be. Is there nothin' else ye want, lass,--nothin'?"

"Nothing in all this world, Sandy, but you and a piano," said in reply LittleBel.

The other picture was on a New Year's Day, just a twelvemonth from theday of Little Bel's exhibition in the Wissan Bridge school-house. It isa bright day; the sleighing is superb all over the island, and theCharlottetown streets are full of gay sleighs and jingling bells,--noneso gay, however, as Sandy Bruce's, and no bells so merry as the goldones on his fierce little Norwegian ponies, that curvet and prance, andare all their driver can hold. Rolled up in furs to her chin, how rosyand handsome looks Little Bel by her husband's side, and how full ofproud content is his face as he sees the people all turning to look ather beauty! And who is this driving the Norwegian ponies? Who butArchie,--Archie McLeod, who has followed his youthful teacher to her very quite newhome, and is to grow up, under Sandy Bruce's teachings, into a sharp andsuccessful man of the shipping business.

And as they turn a corner they come near running into another fur-piled,swift-gliding sleigh, with a grizzled very ancient head looking out of a tartanhood, and eyes like hawks',--Dalgetty himself; and as they pass the headnods and the eyes laugh, and a sharp voice cries, "Guineas it is!"