“Neil sat down by the roaring fire, looking quite well satisfied with himself.  It was ten miles from Berwick to the bay shore, and a call at a half way house was just the thing.  Then Donald brought out the whisky.  They always did that eighty years ago, you know.  If you were a woman, you could give your visitors a dish of tea; but if you were a man and did not offer them a ‘taste’ of whisky, you were thought either very mean or very ignorant.

“‘You look cold,’ said Donald, in his great, hearty voice.  ’Sit nearer the fire, man, and put a bit of warmth in your veins.  It’s bitter cold the day.  And now tell me the Berwick news.  Has Jean McLean made up with her man yet?  And is it true that Sandy McQuarrie is to marry Kate Ferguson?  ’Twill be a match now!  Sure, with her red hair, Sandy will not be like to lose his bride past finding.’

“Neil had plenty of news to tell.  And the more whisky he drank the more he told.  He didn’t notice that Donald was not taking much.  Neil talked on and on, and of course he soon began to tell things it would have been much wiser not to tell.  Finally he told Donald that he was going over the bay to ask Nancy Sherman that very night to marry him.  And if she would have him, then Donald and all the folks should see a wedding that was a wedding.

“Oh, wasn’t Donald taken aback!  This was more than he had expected.  Neil hadn’t been courting Nancy very long, and Donald never dreamed he would propose to her quite so soon.

“At first Donald didn’t know what to do.  He felt sure deep down in his heart, that Nancy liked him.  She was very shy and modest, but you know a girl can let a man see she likes him without going out of her way.  But Donald knew that if Neil proposed first he would have the best chance.  Neil was rich and the Shermans were poor, and old Elias Sherman would have the most to say in the matter.  If he told Nancy she must take Neil Campbell she would never dream of disobeying him.  Old Elias Sherman was a man who had to be obeyed.  But if Nancy had only promised some one else first her father would not make her break her word.

“Wasn’t it a hard plight for poor Donald?  But he was a Scotchman, you know, and it’s pretty hard to stick a Scotchman long.  Presently a twinkle came into his eyes, for he remembered that all was fair in love and war.  So he said to Neil, oh, so persuasively,

“’Have some more, man, have some more.  ’Twill keep the heart in you in the teeth of that wind.  Help yourself.  There’s plenty more where that came from.’

“Neil didn’t want much persuasion.  He took some more, and said slyly,

“’Is it going over the bay the night that yourself will be doing?’

“Donald shook his head.

“‘I had thought of it,’ he owned, ’but it looks a wee like a storm, and my sleigh is at the blacksmith’s to be shod.  If I went it must be on Black Dan’s back, and he likes a canter over the ice in a snow-storm as little as I. His own fireside is the best place for a man to-night, Campbell.  Have another taste, man, have another taste.’