In conclusion, we have only to remark, that it is a fortunate circumstance for the owners of Highland estates that they can be rented for deer-forests. In no other way could the proprietors obtain so good an income from their lands. Those engaged in the sport of deer-stalking year by year expend a large amount of money; they give remunerative employment to many hundred persons, and have done much in many instances to improve the moral as well as the material circumstances of the people by setting those employed by them a good example. As to the question whether it would be more profitable to feed sheep or deer, that must be left to settle itself by the inevitable operation of economic law. It is a question of rental; persons having moors and forests in their hands, naturally enough let them to those who offer most money for them. It has been accurately ascertained by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Crofting System, &c., that all the deer-forests in Scotland—comprising about two million acres—are capable of throwing on the market only about four hundred thousand sheep per annum; and as there are in the United Kingdom nearly thirty million sheep, it is at once seen how comparatively meagre is the displacement of sheep by the Scottish deer-forests. BY MEAD AND STREAM. CHAPTER LVI.—UPHILL. She knew and he knew that they were something more to each other on that white winter day than they had ever been before. What the degree of the ‘something more’ might be, neither Madge nor Philip attempted to calculate. They were conscious of it, and that was enough: yet both wondered how there could be this sense of closer alliance, when, looking back, they remembered how often they had thought that nothing on earth could decrease or increase their affection. They were learning the priceless lesson that _Love_ grows in suffering where mere passion quickly withers and dies, and frequently turns to hate. An honest, promptly spoken word had saved them from folly—cleared the mist from his eyes, and scoured the misery out of both hearts. And it was Madge who spoke this magical word, as it is the loving woman—God bless her—who always does. But then, says the cynic, ‘the loving woman’ is so rare that she may be freely allowed all possible praise: vanity and interest have generally much more to do in linking men and women than affection. Read your newspaper, note the lives of those around you, count the sores which the four walls of every house conceal, and then you will know how rare she is.—Go, cynic; we will shut our eyes and dream the beautiful dream of all romance, that women are fair, self-sacrificing, and loyal in their love. Madge was insensible of any special heroism in taking the common-sense view of her duty to Philip and acting upon it. So now, the happy end being achieved, she turned calmly to think of what they had to do for others.