Scotland/Scots > Reminiscences of a Highland parish

MARY CAMPBEtL’S MARRIAGE.
2T3
managed to enlist at all, and she to follow him as
his wife, I know not. But I presume that in those
days, when soldiers were recruited by officers who
had personally known them and their people, and
to whom the soldier was previously attached, many
things were permitted and favours obtained which
would be impossible now. Nor can I tell why
Mary was obliged to return home. But the rules
or necessities of the service during war demanded
this step. So Mary once more appeared at the
manse, in the possession of about ^60, which she
had earned and saved by working for the regi¬
ment, and which Donald had intrusted, along with
an only daughter, to his wife’s care. The money
was invested by the minister. Mary, as a matter
of course, occupied her old place in the family,
and found every other fellow-servant, but Donald,
where she had left them years before. No one
received her with more joy than Hugh M'Allister,
who had been her confidant and best man. But
what stories and adventures Mary had to tell !
And what a high position she occupied at the old
kitchen fireside ! Everything there was as happy
as in the days of “ auld lang syne,” and nothing