In Wick, too, he had been troubled with Sandy Beg, and a kind of nameless dread possessed him about the man; he could not get rid of it, even after he had heard that Sandy had sailed in a whaling ship for the Arctic seas.
Thus things went on until the end of July.

John was engaged now until the steamer stopped running in September, and the little sum of ready money necessary for the winter's comfort was assured.

Christine sat singing and knitting, or singing and braiding straw, and Dame Alison went up and down her cottage with a glad heart.

They knew little of John's anxieties.

Christine had listened sympathizingly to his trouble about Margaret, and said, "Thou wait an' trust; John dear, an' at the end a' things will be well." Even Ragon's ill-will and Peter's ill words had not greatly frightened them--"The wrath o' man shall praise Him," read old Alison, with just a touch of spiritual satisfaction, "an' the rest o' the wrath he will restrain.".