"She is gone to Lizzie Robertson's for an hour. Her man is yet very badly off. She said she would sit with him till the night turned. Lizzie is most worn out, I'm sure, by this time." "Where is Jamie?" "He said he was going to the fishing. He will have caught his boat, or he would have been back here again by this hour." "Then we are alone? And like to be for an hour? eh, Christina?" "There will be no one here till mother comes at the turn of the night. What for are you asking the like of them questions, Andrew?" "Because I have been seeking this hour. I have things to tell you, Christina, that must never go beyond yourself; no, not even to mother, unless the time comes for it. I am not going to ask you to give me your word or promise. You are Christina Binnie, and that is enough." "I should say so. The man or woman who promises with an oath is not to be trusted. There is you and me, and God for our witness. What ever you have to say, the hearer and the witness is sufficient." "I know that. Christina, I have been this day to Edinburgh, and I have brought home from the bank six hundred pounds." "Six hundred pounds, Andrew! It is not believable." "_Whist, woman!_ I have six hundred pounds in my breast pocket, and I have siller in the house beside. I have sold my share in the '_Sure-Giver_,' and I have been saving money ever since I put on my first sea-boots." "I have always thought that saving money was your great fault, Andrew." "I know. I know it myself only too well. Many's the Sabbath day I have been only a bawbee Christian, when I ought to have put a shilling in the plate. But I just could not help it." "Yes, you could." "Tell me how, then." "Just try and believe that you are putting your collection into the hand of God Almighty, and not into a siller plate. Then you will put the shilling down and not the bawbee." "Perhaps. The thought is not a new one to me, and often I have forced myself to give a white shilling instead of a penny-bit at the kirk door, just to get the better of the de'il once in a while. But for all that I know right well that saving siller is my besetting sin. However,