“‘An’ she’s sae bonnie,’ would Willie Robertson add with a sigh.  ‘I would na’ covet the wealth o’ the hale world an she were mine.’

“Willie was a fine active young man, who bore an excellent character, and his comrades thought it very likely that Willie was to be the fortunate man.

“Robertson was the youngest son of a farmer in the neighbourhood.  He had no land of his own, and he was one of a very large family.  From a boy he had assisted his father in working the farm for their common maintenance; but after he took to looking at Jeanie Burns at kirk, instead of minding his prayers, he began to wish that he had a homestead of his own, which he could ask Jeanie and her grandfather to share.  “He made his wishes known to his father.  The old man was prudent.  A marriage with Jeanie Burns offered no advantages in a pecuniary view.  But the girl was a good honest girl, of whom any man might be proud.  He had himself married for love, and had enjoyed great comfort in his wife.

“‘Willie, my lad,’ he said, ‘I canna’ gi’e ye a share o’ the farm.  It is ower sma’ for the mony mouths it has to feed.  I ha’e laid by a little siller for a rainy day, an’ this I will gi’e ye to win a farm for yersel’ in the woods o’ Canada.  There is plenty o’ room there, an’ industry brings its ain reward.  If Jeanie Burns lo’es you, as weel as yer dear mither did me, she will be fain to follow you there.’

“Willie grasped his father’s hand, for he was too much elated to speak, and he ran away to tell his tale of love to the girl of his heart.  Jeanie had long loved Robertson in secret, and they were not long in settling the matter.  They forgot in their first moments of joy that old Saunders had to be consulted, for they had determined to take the old man with them.  But here an obstacle occurred of which they had not dreamed.  Old age is selfish, and Saunders obstinately refused to comply with their wishes.  The grave that held the remains of his wife and son was dearer to him than all the comforts promised to him by the impatient lovers in that far foreign land.  Jeanie wept—­but Saunders, deaf and blind, neither heard nor saw her grief, and, like a dutiful child, she breathed no complaint to him, but promised to remain with him until his head rested upon the same pillow with the dead.

“This was a sore and great trial to Willie Robertson, but he consoled himself for his disappointment with the thought that Saunders could not live long, and that he would go and prepare a place for his Jean, and have everything ready for her reception against the old man died.

“‘I was a cousin of Willie’s,’ continued James, ’by the mither’s side, and he persuaded me to accompany him to Canada.  We set sail the first day of May, and were here in time to chop a small fallow for a fall crop.  Willie Robertson had more of this world’s gear than I, for his father had provided him with sufficient funds to purchase a good lot of wild land, which he did in the township of M—–­, and I was to work with him on shares.  We were one of the first settlers in that place, and we found the work before us rough and hard to our heart’s content.  But Willie had a strong motive for exertion—­and never did man work harder than he did that first year on his bush-farm, for the love of Jeanie Burns.’