they were so full of the memories of the blessed past. In recording this the Queen writes, “There is so much true and strong faith in these good, simple people.” The lesson was not forgotten, and we find, by various notes in the diary, that the Queen keeps her husband’s birthday by trying to make it a happy day for those about her, celebrating it by giving presents to her children, ladies and gentlemen in attendance, and servants, so that all should feel they had been borne in mind, and had received some “remembrance of the dear day.” In the same spirit of gratitude for past happiness, Her Majesty’s note in her diary for October 15th, 1867, is, “Our blessed engagement day! A dear and sacred day--already twenty-eight years ago. How I ever bless it!” In contrast with this, we find the entry for her own birthday, May 24th, 1863, just three words, “My poor birthday!” Chief among her Highland friends, the Queen had the good fortune to reckon Dr. Norman Macleod. His strong faith and his power of sympathy, combined with a wonderful gift of expression and indefatigable kindness, gave him a peculiar power in saying the right thing, and giving just the help and support that the Queen wanted when she felt most forlorn. He had also the strong sense of humor which so often makes the crooked straight, and the rough places plain. The Queen felt she could talk openly to him about her sorrow; he helped her to look, not down, but up. When showing him a drawing of the Prince’s mausoleum, his exclamation was, “Oh, _he_ is not there.” He would lead her away from her own grief, to realize, and help to soothe, the sorrows of others. He told her of a beautiful expression of a poor Scottish woman who had lost her husband and several of her children. The poor woman had said, referring to her husband’s death, “When _he_ was ta’en, it made sic a hole in my heart that a’ other sorrows gang lichtly through.” It is interesting to note that on October 3d, 1869, the Queen asked Dr. Macleod his opinion of the Marquis of Lorne. The Doctor assured her that he knew Lord Lorne well, and had prepared him for confirmation, and thought very highly of him,--“good, excellent and superior in every way.” Exactly a year from that day, October 3d, 1870, the Princess Louise became engaged to the Marquis of Lorne, and they were married on March 21st, 1871. The Queen was greatly attracted by the simplicity and dignity of the services of the Scottish Church. She was present at the Communion Service at Crathie in 1871. The Journal says:-- “It would be impossible to say how deeply we were impressed by the grand simplicity of the service. It was all so truly earnest, and no description can do justice to the perfect devotion of the whole assemblage. It was most touching, and I longed much to join in it.” Since 1873, this wish on the part of the Queen has been gratified, and she has joined in the communion at Crathie every autumn.