170 OVER ON THE ISLAND

a quarter of the Island names start with Mac-some- thing. John A. MacDonald is the Island’s most popular name, with John J. and James as runners-up. Stanley Baldwin said it was ‘only natural that there are so many MacDonalds. A MacDonald is worth ten other Macs anyway.”’

“ Right!” The Ontario chest swelled visibly. “As a matter of fact, my name is MacDonald.”

“Did you ever hear of the Religion of the Yellow Cudgell?” Jean interrupted the chest expansion.

“The what? No, I never did.”

“And you a MacDonald! Well, in the island of Uist, off the coast of Scotland, in 1770, there lived a proprietor, MacDonald. He had married a Protestant and had been converted to that faith. He then got the idea of converting all his tenants. He stationed himself at a fork in the road and attempted to drive them to the Protestant church with his yellow walking- stick—hence the name, the Religion of the Yellow Walking-Stick. His efforts met with disaster. Fin- ally, one day, he summoned his tenants—over two hundred families—and gave them the choice of renouncing their religion or of leaving their lands and homes.”

“ Persistent, wasn’t he? ”

“Yes. But a kinsman, Captain John MacDonald, proprietor of the two estates of Glenaladale and Glen— finnan, heard of this and determined to help these people. Captain John had been sent to the Jesuit University of Ratisbon, in Germany, at the age of twelve, and had taken his degree there. He was so touched by the plight of these unfortunate people that he mortgaged his two estates in Scotland, bought an estate of forty thousand acres in the Tracadie district