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diff --git a/old/sctwn10.txt b/old/sctwn10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..513ba04 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sctwn10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4046 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Scotch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins +#6 in our series by Lucy Fitch Perkins + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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Grades V-VI. + +Each volume is illustrated by the author + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO + +COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY LUCY PITCH PERKINS + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + +CONTENTS + +I. THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE ON THE BRAE +II. THE RABBIT AND THE GAMEKEEPER +III. THE SABBATH +IV. THE NEW BOY +V. EVENING IN THE WEE BIT HOOSIE +VI. TWO DISCOVERIES +VII. THE CLAN +VIII. THE POACHERS +IX. A RAINY DAY +X. ON THE TRAIL +XI. ANGUS NIEL AND THE CANNY CLAN +XII. NEWS +XIII. THE NEW LAIRD +GLOSSARY +SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS + + +THE SCOTCH TWINS + +I. + +THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE ON THE BRAE + +If you had peeped in at the window of a little gray house on a +heathery hillside in the Highlands of Scotland one Saturday +morning in May some years ago, you might have seen Jean Campbell +"redding up" her kitchen. It was a sight best seen from a safe +distance, for, though Jean was only twelve years old, she was a +fierce little housekeeper every day in the week, and on Saturday, +when she was getting ready for the Sabbath, it was a bold person +indeed who would venture to put himself in the path of her broom. +To be sure, there was no one in the family to take such a risk +except her twin brother Jock, her father, Robin Campbell, the +Shepherd of Glen Easig, and True Tammas, the dog, for the Twins' +mother had "slippit awa'" when they were only ten years old, +leaving Jean to take a woman's care of her father and brother and +the little gray house on the brae. + +On this May morning Jean woke up at five o'clock and peeped out +of the closet bed in which she slept to take a look at the day. +The sun had already risen over the rocky crest of gray old Ben +Vane, the mountain back of the house, and was pouring a stream of +golden sunlight through the eastern windows of the kitchen. The +kettle was singing over the fire in the open fireplace, a pan of +skimmed milk for the calf was warming by the hearth, and her +father was just going out, with the pail on his arm, to milk the +cow. She looked across the room at the bed in the corner by the +fireplace to see if Jock were still asleep. All she could see of +him was a shock of sandy hair, two eyes tight shut, and a +freckled nose half buried in the bed-clothes. + +"Wake up, you lazy laddie," she called out to him, "or when I get +my clothes on I'll waken you with a wet cloth! Here's the sun +looking in at the windows to shame you, and Father already gone +to the milking." + +Jock opened one sleepy blue eye. + +"Leave us alone, now, Jeanie," he wheedled. "I was just having a +sonsie wee bit of a dream. Let me finish, and syne I'll tell you +all about it." + +"Indeed, and you'll do nothing of the kind" retorted Jean, with +spirit. "Up with you, mannie, or I'll be dressed before you, and +I ken very well you'd not like to be beaten by a lassie, and her +your own sister, too." + +Jock cuddled down farther into the blankets without answering, +and Jean began putting on her clothes. It seemed but a moment +before she slid to the floor, rolled her sleeves high above a +pair of sturdy elbows, and went to finish her toilet at the +basin. There she washed her face and combed her hair, while Jock, +cautiously opening one eye again, observed her from his safe +retreat. He watched her part her hair, wet it, plaster it +severely back from her brow, and tie it firmly in place with a +piece of black ribbon. Jock could read Jean's face like print, +and in this stern toilet he foresaw a day of unrelenting house- +cleaning. + +"Aye," he said to himself bitterly, "she's putting on her +Saturday face. There's trouble brewing, I doubt! It'll be Jock +this and Jock that both but and ben all day long, and whatever is +the use of all this tirley-wirly I can't see, when on Monday the +house will look as if it had never seen the sight of a besom! +I'll just bide where I am." He closed his eyes and pretended to +be asleep. + +It is true that Jean's Saturday face had such a housekeepery +pucker between the eyes and such a severe arrangement of the +front hair that any one who did not peep behind the black ribbon +might have thought her a very stern young person indeed, but +behind the black ribbon Jean's true character stood revealed! +However prim and smooth she might make it look in front, where +the cracked glass enabled her to keep an eye on it, behind her +back, where she couldn't possibly see it, her hair broke into the +jolliest little waves and curls, which bobbed merrily about even +on the worst Saturday that ever was; and spoiled the effect +whenever she tried to be severe. + +When she had given a final wipe with the brush, she took another +look at Jock. There was still nothing to be seen of him but the +shock of sandy hair and a series of bumps under the blanket. Jock +could feel Jean looking at him right through the bed-clothes. + +"Jock," said Jean,--and her voice had a Saturday sound to it,-- +"You can't sleep in this day! Get up!" + +There was no answer. Jock might well have known that Jean was in +no mood for trifling, but, having decided on his course of +action, he stuck to it like a true Scotchman and neither moved +nor opened his eyes. Jean was driven to desperate measures. She +took a few drops of water in the dipper, marched firmly to the +bedside, and stood with it poised directly above Jock's nose. + +"Jock," she said solemnly, "I'm telling you! Don't ever say I +didn't. If you don't stir yourself before I count five, you'll be +sorry. One, two, three!" Still no move from Jock. "Four, five," +and, without further parley, she emptied the dipper on his +freckled nose. + +There was a wrathful snort and a violent convulsion of the +blankets, and an instant later Jock was tearing about the kitchen +like a cat in a fit, but by this time Jean was out of doors and +well beyond reach. + +"Come here, you limmer!" he howled. But Jean knew better than to +accept his invitation. Instead she skipped laughing down the path +from the door to the brook which ran bubbling and gurgling by the +house. Even in her hasty exit from the cottage, Jean had had the +presence of mind to take the pail with her, and now she stopped +to fill it from the clear, sparkling water of the burn. It was +such a wonderful bright spring morning that, having filled it, +she stopped for a moment to look about her at the dear familiar +surroundings of her home. + +There was the little gray house itself, with the peat smoke +curling from the chimney straight up into the blue sky. Back of +it was the garden-patch with its low stone wall, and back of that +were the fowl-yard and the straw-covered byre for the cow. +Beyond, and to the north lay the moors, covered with heather and +dotted with grazing sheep. Jean could hear the tinkle of their +bells, the bleating of the lambs, and the comforting maternal +answers of the ewes. Above the dark forest which spread itself +over the slopes of the foot-hills toward the south and east a +lave rock was singing, and she could hear the cry of whaups +wheeling and circling over the moors. They were pleasant morning +sounds, dear and familiar to Jean's ear, and oh, the sparkle of +the dew on the bracken, and the smell of the hawthorn by the +garden wall! Jean lifted her pail of water and went singing with +it up the hill-slope to the house for sheer joy that she was +alive. + +"The Campbells are coming, O ho, O ho!" she sang, and the hills, +taking up the refrain, echoed "O ho, O ho!" + +True Tammas, who had slept all night under the straw-stack by the +byre, came bounding down the little path to meet her, wagging his +tail and barking his morning greeting. They reached the door +together, but Jock, mindful of his injuries, had shut and barred +it, and was grinning at them through the window. Jean sat placidly +down upon the step with True Tammas beside her and continued her +song. Her calmness irritated Jock. + +"Aye," he shouted through the crack, "the Campbells may be +coming, but they'll not get in this house! You can just sit there +blethering all day, and I'll never unbar the door." + +Jean stopped singing long enough to answer: "You'll get no +breakfast, then, you mind, unless you'll be getting it yourself, +for the porridge is not cooked and the kettle's nearly boiled +away. I've the water-pail with me, and there's not a drop else in +the house." + +She left him to consider this and resumed her song. For several +minutes she and True Tammas sat there gazing westward across the +valley with the little river flowing through it, to the hills +swimming in the blue distance beyond. + +At last she called over her shoulder, "Jock, Father's coming," +and Jock, seeing that his cause was hopelessly lost, unfastened +the door. Jean, her father, and True Tammas all came into the +kitchen together, and the moment she was in the room again you +should have seen how she ordered things about! + +"Set the milk right down here, Father," she said, tapping the +table with her finger as she flew past to get the strainer and a +pan, "and you, Jock, fill the kettle. It's almost dry this +minute. And stir up the fire under it. Tam,"--that was what they +called the dog for short,--"go under the table or you'll get +stepped on!" + +You should have seen how they all minded!--even the father, who +was six feet tall, with a jaw like a nut-cracker and a face that +would have looked very stern indeed if it hadn't been for his +twinkling blue eyes. When the milk was strained and put away in +the little shed room back of the kitchen chimney, Jean got out +the oatmeal-kettle and hung the porridge over the fire, and while +that was cooking she set three places at the tiny table and +scalded the churn. Meanwhile Jock went out to feed the fowls. By +half past six the oatmeal was on the table and the little family +gathered about it, reverently bowing their heads while the +Shepherd of Glen Easig asked a blessing upon the food. + +There was only porridge and milk for breakfast, so it took but a +short time to eat it, and then the real work of the day began. +The Shepherd put on his Kilmarnock bonnet and called Tam, who had +had his breakfast on the hearth, and the two went away to the +hills after the sheep. Jock led the cow to a patch of green turf +near the bottom of the hill, where she could find fresh pasture, +and Jean was left alone in the kitchen of the little gray house. +Ah, you should have seen her then! She washed the dishes and put +them away in the cupboard, she skimmed the milk and put the cream +into the churn, she swept the hearth and shook the blankets out +of doors in the fresh morning air. Then she made the beds, and +when the kitchen was all in order, she "went ben"--that was the +way they spoke of the best room--and dusted that too. There +wasn't really a bit of need of dusting the room, for it was +never, never used except on very important occasions, such as +when the minister called. The little house was five miles from +the village, so the minister did not come often, but Jean kept it +clean all the time just to be on the safe side. + +There wasn't so very much work to do in the room after all, for +there was nothing in it but the fireplace, a little table with +the Bible, the Catechism, and a copy of Burns's poems on it, and +three chairs. The kitchen was a different matter: There were the +beds, and they were hard for a small girl to manage, and the +cupboard with its shelves of dishes. There were three stools, and +a big chair for the Shepherd, and the great chest where the +clothes were kept, and besides all these things there was the wag- +at-the-wall clock on the mantel-shelf which had to be wound every +Saturday night. If you want to know just where these things +stood, you have only to look at the plan, where their places are +so plainly marked that, if you were suddenly to wake up in the +middle of the night and find yourself in the little gray house, +you could go about and put your hand on everything in it in the +dark. + +Jock stayed with the cow as long as he dared, and went back to +the house only when he knew he couldn't postpone his tasks any +longer. Jean was sweeping the doorstep as he came slowly up the +hill. + +"Come along, Grandfather," she called out, her brow sternly +puckered in front and her curls bobbing gaily up and down behind. +"A body'd think you were seventy-five years old and had the +rheumatism to see you move! Come and work the churn a bit. 'Twill +limber you up." + +Jock knew that arguments were useless. His father had told him, +girl's work or not, he was to help Jean, so he slowly dragged +into the house and slowly began to move the dasher up and down. + +"Havers!" said Jean, when she could stand it no longer. "It's +lucky there's a cover to the churn else you'd drop to sleep and +fall in and drown yourself in the buttermilk! The butter won't be +here at this rate till to-morrow, when it would break the Sabbath +by coming!" + +She seized the dasher, as she spoke, and began to churn so +vigorously that the milk splashed up all around the handle. Soon +little yellow specks began to appear; and when they had formed +themselves into a ball in the churn, she lifted it out with a +paddle and put it in a pan of clear cold water. Then she gave +Jock a drink of buttermilk. + +"Poor laddie!" she said. "You are all tired out! Take a sup of +this to put new strength in you, for you've got to go out and +weed the garden. I looked at the potatoes yesterday, and the +weeds have got the start of them already." + +"If I must weed the garden, give me something to eat too," begged +Jock. "This milk'll do no more than slop around in my insides to +make me feel my emptiness." + +Jean opened the cupboard door and peeped within. + +"There's nothing for you, laddie," she said, "but this piece of a +scone. I'll have to bake more for the Sabbath, and you can have +this to give yourself a more filled-up feeling. And now off with +you!" + +She took him by the collar and led him to the door; and there on +the step was Tam. + +"What are you doing here?" cried Jean, astonished to see him. +"You should be with Father, watching the sheep! It's shame to a +dog to be lolling around the house instead of away on the hills +where he belongs." + +Tam flattened himself out on his stomach and dragged himself to +her feet, rolling his eyes beseechingly upward, and if ever a dog +looked ashamed of himself, that dog was Tam. Jean shook her head +at him very sternly, and oh, how the jolly little curls bobbed +about + +"Tam," she said, "you're as lazy as Jock himself. Whatever shall +I do with the two of you?" + +Jock had already finished his scone and he thought this a good +time to disappear. He slipped round the corner of the house and +whistled. All Tam's shame was gone in an instant. He gave a +joyous bark and bounded away after Jock, his tail waving gayly in +the breeze. + + +II. THE RABBIT AND THE GAMEKEEPER + +Out in the garden a rabbit had for some time been enjoying +himself nightly in the potato-patch, biting off the young sprouts +which were just sticking their heads through the ground. When the +rabbit heard Tam bark she dashed out of sight behind a burdock +leaf and sat perfectly still. Now if Tam and Jock had come into +the garden by the wicket gate, as they should have done, this +story might never have been written at all, because in that case +the rabbit would perhaps have got safely back to her burrow in +the woods without being seen, and there wouldn't have been any +story to tell. + +But Tam and Jock didn't come in by the gate. They jumped over the +wall. Jock jumped first and landed almost on top of the rabbit, +but when Tam, a second later, landed in the same place, she was +running for dear life toward the hole in the stone wall where she +had got in. Shouting and barking, Jock and Tam tore after her. +Round and round the garden they flew, but just as they thought +they had her cornered, the rabbit slipped through the hole in the +wall and ran like the wind for the woods. Jock and Tam both +cleared the wall at a bound and chased after her, making enough +noise to be heard a mile away. + +It happened that there was some one much less than a mile away to +hear it. And it happened, too, that he was the one person in all +the world that Jock would most wish not to hear it, for he was +gamekeeper to the Laird of Glen Cairn, and the Laird of Glen +Cairn owned all the land for miles and miles about in every +direction. He owned the little gray house and the moor, the +mountain, and the forest, and even the little brook that sang by +the door. To be sure, the Laird seemed to care very little for +his Highland home. He visited it but once in a great while, and +then only for a few days' hunting. The rest of the year his great +stone castle was occupied only by Eppie McLean, the housekeeper, +and two or three other servants. The Laird did not know his +tenants, and they did not know him. The rents were collected for +him by Mr. Craigie, his factor, who lived in the village, and +Angus Niel was appointed to see that no one hunted game on the +estate. + +Angus was a man of great zeal in the performance of his duty, to +judge by his own account of it. He was always telling of heroic +encounters with poachers in the forests, and though he never +seemed to succeed in catching them and bringing them before the +magistrate, his tales were a warning to evil-doers and few people +dared venture into the region which he guarded. He was often seen +creeping along the outskirts of the woods, his gun on his +shoulder, his round eyes rolling suspiciously in every direction, +or even loitering around the cow byres as if he thought game +might be secreted there. + +At the very moment when Jock and Tam came flying over the fence +and down the hill like a cyclone after the rabbit, Angus was +kneeling beside the brook to get a drink. His lips were pursed up +and he was bending over almost to the surface of the water, when +something dashed past him, and an instant later something else +struck him like a thunderbolt from behind, and drove him +headforemost into the brook! It wasn't Tam that did it. It was +Jock! Of course, it was an accident, but Angus thought he had +done it on purpose, and he was probably the most surprised as +well as the angriest man in Scotland at that moment. He lifted +his head out of the brook and glared at Jock as fiercely as he +could with little rills of water pouring from his hair and nose, +and trickling in streams down his neck. + +"I'll make you smart for this, you young blatherskite," he roared +at Jock, who stood before him frozen with horror. "I'll teach you +where you belong! You were running after that rabbit, and your +dog is yelping down a hole after her this minute!" He was such a +funny sight as he knelt there, dripping and scolding, that, +scared as he was, Jock could not help laughing. More than ever +enraged, Angus made a sudden lunge forward and seized Jock by the +ear. + +"You come along o' me," he said. His invitation was so urgent +that Jock felt obliged to accept it, and together the two started +up the slope to the little gray house. Tam, meanwhile, had given +up the chase and joined them, his tail at half-mast. + +When they reached the house Angus bumped the door open without +knocking, and stamped into the kitchen. Jean was bending over the +fire turning a scone on the girdle, when the noise at the door +made her jump and look around. She was so amazed at the sight +which met her eye that for an instant she stood stock-still, and +Angus, seeing that he had only two children to deal with, gave +Jock's ear a vicious tweak and began to bluster at Jean. + +But, you see, he didn't know Jean. When she saw that great fat +man abusing her brother and tracking mud all over her kitchen +floor at the same time, instead of being frightened, as she +should have been, Jean shook her cooking-fork at Angus Niel and +stamped her foot smartly on the floor. + +"You let go of my brother's ear this instant," she shouted, "and +take your muddy boots out of my kitchen!" + +Angus let go of Jock's ear for sheer surprise, and Jock at once +sprang to his sister's side, while Tam, seeing that trouble was +brewing, gave a low growl and bared his teeth. Angus gave a look +at Tam and decided to explain. + +"This young blatherskite here," he began, in a voice that caused +the rafters to shake, "has been trespassing. He was after a +rabbit. I caught him in the very act. I'll have the law on him! +He rammed me into the burn!" + +"I didn't mean to," shouted Jock, "I thought you were a stone, +and I just meant to step on you and jump across the burn." + +"You meant to step on me, did you?" roared Angus. "Me! Do you +know who I am?" Jock knew very well, but he didn't have time to +say so before Angus, choking with rage, made a furious lunge for +his ear and left two more great spots of mud on the kitchen +floor. It was not to be borne. Jean pointed to his feet. + +"You're trespassing yourself," she screamed. "You've no right in +this house, And you take yourself out of it this minute! Just +look at the mud you've tracked on my floor!" + +Angus did look. He looked not only at the floor but at Tam, for +Tam was now slowly approaching him, growling as he came. + +Angus thought best to do exactly as Jean said and as quickly as +possible. He reached the door in two jumps with Tam leaping after +him and nipping his heels at each jump, and in another instant +found himself on the doorstep with the door shut behind him. + +Angus considered himself a very important man. He wasn't used to +being treated in this way, and it's no wonder he was angry. He +swelled up like a pouter pigeon; and shook his fist at the door. + +"You just mind who I am," he shouted. "If ever I catch you +poaching again, I'll have you up before the bailie as sure as +eggs is eggs!" + +But the door didn't say a word, and it seemed beneath his dignity +to scold a door that wouldn't even answer back, so he stamped +away growling. The children watched him until he disappeared in +the woods, and when at last they turned from the window, the +scone on the girdle was burned to a cinder and had to be given to +the chickens! + +You might have thought that by this time Jean had done enough +work even for Saturday, but there was still the broth to make for +supper and for the Sabbath, and the kitchen floor to be scrubbed, +and, last of all, the family baths! When the little kitchen was +as clean as clean could be, Jean got the wash-tub and set it on +the hearth. Jock knew the signs and decided he'd go out behind +the byre and look for eggs, but Jean had her eye on him. + +"Jock Campbell," said she, "you go at once and get the water." + +In vain Jock assured her he was cleaner than anything and didn't +need a bath. Jean was firm. She made him fill the kettles, and +when the water was hot, she shut him up in the kitchen with soap +and a towel while she took all the shoes to the front steps to +polish for Kirk on the morrow. When at last Jock appeared before +her he was so shiny clean that Jean said it dazzled her eyes to +look at him, so she sent him for the cow while she took her turn +at the tub. + +By four o'clock, Tam, who had spent an anxious afternoon by the +hole in the garden wall watching for the rabbit, suddenly +remembered his duties and started away over the moors to meet the +Shepherd and round up any sheep that might have strayed from the +flock, and at five Jock, returning from the byre, met his father +coming home with Tam at his heels. + +The regular evening tasks were finished just as the sun sank out +of sight behind the western hills, and the birds were singing +their evening songs, and when they went into the kitchen a bright +fire was blazing on the hearth, the broth was simmering in the +kettle, and Jean had three bowls of it ready for them on the +table. + +While they ate their supper Jock told their father all about the +rabbit and Angus Niel and his ducking in the burn, and when Jock +told about Jean's ordering him out of the kitchen, and of his +jumping to the door with Tam nipping at his heels, the Shepherd +slapped his knee and laughed till he cried. Tam, sitting on the +hearth with his tongue lolling out, looked as if he were +laughing, too. + +"Havers!" cried the Shepherd, "I wish I'd been here to see that +sight! Angus is that swollen up with pride of position, he's like +to burst himself. He needed a bit of a fall to ease him of it, +but I'd never have picked out Jean Campbell to trip him up! +You're a spirited tid, my dawtie, and I'm proud of you." + +"But, Father," said Jock, "whatever shall we do about the +rabbits? The woods are full of them, and there'll not be a sprig +of green left in the garden. They can hop right over the wall, +even if we do stop up the hole." + +"Aye," answered his father solemnly, "and that's a serious +question, my lad. They get worse every year, and syne we'll have +no tatties for the winter, let alone other vegetables. A deer +came into Andrew Crumpet's garden one night last week and left +not a green sprout in it by the morning. The creatures must live +that idle gentlemen may shoot them for pleasure, even though they +eat our food and leave us to go hungry." His brow darkened and a +long-smouldering wrath burst forth into words. "There's no +justice in it," he declared, thumping the table with his fist +till the spoons danced, "Lairds or no Lairds, Anguses or no +Anguses." + +The Twins had never before heard their father speak like that, +and they were a little frightened. They were too young to know +the long years of injustice in such matters that stretched far +back into the history of Scotland. + +For a few minutes after this outburst the Shepherd remained +silent, gazing into the fire; then he roused himself from his +brown study and said: "I've been keeping something from you, my +bairns. Mr. Craigie told me last week that the Auld Laird has +taken a whim to turn all this region into a game preserve, and +that he will not renew our lease when the time is up. It has till +autumn to run, and then, God help us, we'll have to be turned out +of this house where I've lived all my life and my forebears +before me, and seek some other place to live and some other work +to do." + +"But what can you do else?" gasped Jock. He felt that his world +was tumbling about his ears. + +"The Lord knows," answered the Shepherd. "Emigrate to America +likely. I've always been with the sheep and nothing else. It may +be I can hire out to some other body, but chances are few +hereabouts, and if the Auld Laird carries out this notion, +there'll be many another beside ourselves who'll need to be +walking the world. It seems unlikely he would be for taking away +the town too, even if it is but a wee bit of a village, and the +law gives him the right, for times have changed since that lease +was made, long years ago, and there are few in this day who would +venture to enforce it. But the Auld Laird's a hard man, I'm told, +and he chooses hard men to carry out his will. Mr. Craigie has +little heart, and as for Angus Niel, he'd make things worse +rather than better if he had his way." Then, seeing tears +gathering in Jean's eyes, he said to comfort her, "There now, +dinna greet, my lassie! There's no sense in crossing a bridge +till you come to it, and this bridge is still four months and a +bittock away. We've the summer before us, and the Lord's arm is +not shortened that it cannot save. We'll make the best of it and +have one more happy summer, let the worst come at the end of it." + +"But, Father," urged Jock, "will he turn every one out, do you +think?" + +"Who can foretell the whimsies of a selfish man?" answered the +Shepherd. "He has only his own will to consider, but my opinion +is he'll turn out those whose holdings lie nearest the forests +and would be best for game, whatever he may do with the rest." + +This was overwhelming news, and the children sat silent beside +their silent father, trying to think of something to comfort +their sad hearts. At last Jean lifted her head with a spirited +toss and said, "Gin we were to go to-morrow, the dishes would +still have to be washed," and she began to clear the table. + +Her father laughed, and oh, how his laugh brightened the little +kitchen and seemed to bid defiance to the fates! + +"That's right, little woman," he said. "You've the true spirit of +a Campbell in you. We must aye do the duty at hand and trust the +Lord for the rest." + +Jock was so impressed with the solemn talk of the evening that he +wiped the dishes without being asked and went to bed of his own +accord when the wag-at-the-wall clock struck eight. The Shepherd +sat alone beside the fire until the children were in bed and +asleep; then he sent Tam to the straw stack, wound the clock, and +took his own turn at the tub. Last of all he covered the coals +with ashes for the night and crept into bed beside Jock. + + + +III. THE SABBATH + +The Sabbath morning dawned bright and clear, and the Campbells +were all up early and had the chores done before seven o'clock. +Then came breakfast, and after breakfast Jean ran "ben the room," +and brought the Bible to her father. Then she and Jock sat with +folded hands while he read a long chapter about the "begats." +Jock thought there seemed to be a very large family of them. This +was followed by a prayer as long as the chapter. The prayer was +so long that True Tammas went sound asleep on the hearth and had +a dream that must have been about the rabbit, for his ears +twitched and he made little whiny noises and jerked his legs. It +was so long that the kettle boiled clear away and made such +alarming, crackling sounds that Jean couldn't help peeking +through her fingers just once, because it was their only kettle, +and if it should go and burst itself during family prayers, +whatever should they do! The moment the Shepherd said "Amen," +Jean sprang so quickly to lift it from the fire that she stumbled +over Tam and woke him up and almost burned her fingers besides. +The kettle wasn't really spoiled, and while the water was heating +in it for the dishes, Jean took up the little yellow book and +said to Jock, + +"Come here now, laddie, and see if you can say your catechism. Do +you ken what is the chief end of man?" + +"Dod, and I do," answered Jock. "You let me spier the questions." + +"No," answered Jean firmly. "I'll spier them first myself." + +"You're thinking I can't answer," said Jock. "I'll fool you." + +He stood up as straight as a whole row of soldiers and fired off +the answer all in one breath. + +"The-chief-end-of-man-is-to-glorify-God-and-enjoy-Him-forever," +he shouted. + +Jean nodded approvingly. "You ken that one all right, but that is +the first one in the book and everybody knows that one. Now I'm +going to skip around." + +"Don't skip," urged Jock. "Take them just the way they come. I +can remember 'em better." + +But Jean gave no quarter. "What is predestination?" she demanded. + +This was a poser, but Jock tackled it bravely. + +"Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to-to-" he got so +far and stuck. + +"To what?" asked Jean. + +"To be reformed," Jock hazarded, wallowing in difficulties. + +"Conformed," corrected Jean. "You don't know that one at all! +What is Saving Grace?" + +Jock fell down entirely on saving grace. "It's a--It's a--" he +began. Then he bit his lip and scowled, and looked up at the ham +hanging from the rafters, and out of the windows, but as nothing +more about saving grace occurred to him he said, "Aw, Jean, I +know, but I can't think." + +"If you knew, you wouldn't have to think," Jean retorted, and +then she made him take the book and sit down on the stool by the +window and learn both answers while she finished the dishes. + +It was ten miles to the village and back, and there was no way to +get there except by walking, but the Campbells would sooner have +thought of going without their food than of staying away from the +Kirk, and so by eight o'clock they were all dressed in their best +clothes and ready to start. They left True Tammas sitting on the +doorstep with his ears drooped and his eyes looking very +sorrowful. He wanted to go with them, but he knew well that he +must stay at home to guard the sheep from stray dogs. + +It was springtime, and the world was so lovely that the troubles +the little family had faced the evening before seemed far away +and impossible in the morning light. It was as if they had +awakened from a bad dream. Who could help being happy on such a +morning? The birds were flying about with straw and bits of wool +in their bills to weave into their nests, and singing as if they +would split their little throats. The river splashed and gurgled +and sang as it dashed over its rocky bed on its way to the sea. +From the village came the distant music of the church bells. The +hawthorn was in bloom, and the river-banks and roadsides were gay +with dandelions and violets, daisies and buttercups. Far away the +mountains lifted their blue summits to the sky, and on a nearer +hill they could see the gray towers of the castle of the Laird of +Glen Cairn. + +The bell was ringing its final summons and all the people were +pouring into the little vestibule as the Campbells reached the +steps of the Kirk. Angus Niel pushed past them, looking as puffy +as a turkey-cock with its feathers spread, and glaring at the +Twins so fiercely that Jock whispered to Jean, "If I poked my +finger at him I believe he'd gobble," and made her almost laugh +aloud. When they passed Mr. Craigie, who held the plate for +people to drop their money in, Jean whispered to Jock, "He looks +for all the world like a pair of tongs in his blacks, he's that +tall and thin," and then Jock certainly would have laughed +outright if he hadn't seen Mrs. Crumpet's eye on him. + +The sermon was very long and the seats were hard and high, but +the service did come to an end at last, although Jock was sure it +was never going to, and afterward the children with their father +stood about in the churchyard for a little while talking to their +neighbors and friends. + +The farm of Andrew Crumpet lay in the same direction as the home +of the Campbells, so it was natural that they should walk along +together and that the two men should talk about the thing that +was uppermost in their minds. Mrs. Crumpet had gone on ahead with +another neighbor, and Sandy Crumpet, who was twelve too, and had +yellow hair, a snub nose, and freckles like Jock's own, walked +with the Twins behind the two fathers. As they turned into the +road, the children heard Andrew say, with a heavy sigh: "Aye, +Robin, we must just make up our minds to it. The Auld Laird's +bent on getting us out." + +"Has Mr. Craigie given you notice, too?" asked the Shepherd. + +"Aye, has he," Andrew answered with bitterness, "and short work +he made of it. It means little to him telling a man to leave his +home and go out in the world to seek new work at our time of +life." + +"He passes for a religious man," said the Shepherd. + +"So did the Pharisee in the temple," said Andrew, "but 'by their +fruits ye shall know them,' and we're not gathering any figs off +of Mr. Craigie, nor grapes from that thorn of an Auld Laird that +I can see!" + +"Nor from Angus Niel, either," agreed Robin Campbell. "The Auld +Laird's servants are of a piece with himself." + +"Fine I ken that," answered Andrew. + +"Well," sighed the Shepherd, "the toad under the harrow cannot be +expected to praise the plowman, and we're just like the toad." + +"Very true," said Andrew, "but the toad has the best of it. We +are being destroyed; not that some one may till the land, but +that it may go to waste, and be kept out of use. We suffer that +the rich may be richer and the poor poorer, that less food may be +produced instead of more. I tell you, Robin, it is not justice." + +"It may be so. It may be so," sighed the Shepherd, "but it is the +law, and we must just submit." + +The two men walked on in silence to the bridge, where the +Crumpets turned, while the Campbells kept on beside the river. +The children were silent, too, only calling out "Good-bye" to +Sandy as they parted, Jock adding, "Come on by to-morrow if you +can," and Sandy, waving his hand, calling back, "Aye, will I." + +As the Twins and their father neared the "wee bit hoosie," Tam +came bounding down the brae to meet them, and in less time than +it takes to tell it Jean had run into the house, taken off her +Sabbath dress, and put on her old one, with her kitchen apron +over it, had mended the fire and heated the broth, and the little +family was seated about the table eating their frugal meal with +appetites sharpened by their long walk. + +The afternoon seemed endless to the children, for they spent it +trying hard not to do any of the things they wanted to do. They +studied the catechism while their father sat with his bonnet on +his head nodding over the Bible, and the wag-at-the-wall clock +ticked the hours solemnly away. Jock whispered to Jean that he +didn't see why Sunday was so much longer than any other day, and +didn't believe her when she said it wasn't really that it only +seemed so. + + + +IV. THE NEW BOY + +Usually Jean and Jock went to school in summer, for in winter the +snow made the roads impassable, but at this time the Dominie was +ill and until he should get well they had the long days to +themselves. When breakfast was over the next morning and the +Shepherd had gone with Tam to the hills, Jean decided to wash the +clothes. Sandy Crumpet came early, and the two boys went off to +play, leaving Jean standing on a stone in the middle of the burn, +soaping the clothes and scrubbing them on the flat surface of a +rock. The water was so cold it made her arms ache, and she soon +decided to let the fast-running stream do the washing for her. +She soaped the garments well, weighted them down with stones, and +then went to join the boys. She found them flat on their stomachs +by the stream, gazing down into a pool of clear water. + +"What do you see?" she called out to them. + +"Trout," answered Jock, his eyes shining with excitement. + +"Let me take a keek," said Jean, flopping down beside them and +craning her neck over the edge. + +They were all three peering with breathless interest into the +water when a strange voice behind them made them jump. For an +instant they thought it might be Angus Niel. + +"Hello!" said the voice. + +The children whirled around, and there before them stood a boy +not much older than themselves, but taller and thinner. He had a +pale face with large black eyes and dark hair partly covered with +a Glengarry bonnet set rakishly over one ear. He wore a suit of +gray tweed with plaid-topped stockings, and carried a fishing-rod +over his shoulder. + +"Hello!" said the stranger again. + +"Hello, yourself!" responded Jock. + +Jean and Sandy were so relieved to find it wasn't Anus Niel that +for an instant they merely gazed at him without speaking. + +"What's there?" asked the new boy. + +"Fish," said Jock. + +"Fish!" cried the new boy, shifting his rod into position. +"Where? Let me have a crack at 'em!" + +"Na, na, don't be so hasty," cried Jock, heading him off. "You'll +get yourself into trouble! Angus Niel would be after you in no +time, and if he caught you, he'd cuff your lug for you, and drag +you before the bailie for poaching!" + +"Who's Angus Niel?" demanded the boy. "I'm not afraid of him." + +"Not yet," answered Jock, "but just go on and you will be! He's +gamekeeper to the Laird, and he'd rather do for you than not. +Aye, he'd just like the feel of you in his fingers, he would." +Jock rubbed his ear. "It's but two days gone since he nearly +pulled the lug off me because I was running after a rabbit that +was eating up our garden. He's terrible suspicious, is Angus, and +he's mad at us besides." + +"What for?" asked the boy. + +"I stepped on him by accident," explained Jock, "and butted him +into the burn." + +"No wonder he was mad," laughed the boy. "Come on, now. Surely a +body can fish. There's no law against that!" + +"Well," said Sandy, "law or no law, Angus is against it, and the +Auld Laird is terrible particular. He's going to turn out all the +farmers in this region and make it into a great game preserve. +Nothing else. You're strange hereabouts, I doubt, or you'd ken +all this yourself. Where are you from?" + +"I'm from London," replied the boy. "I'm staying with Eppie +McLean at the castle." + +"Are you, now?" gasped Sandy. "Is Eppie your aunt, maybe? She'll +be telling you about Angus herself." + +"Eppie's not my aunt," said the boy. "She's a friend of my +mother, and my mother got her to take me in because I've been +sick, and she thought I'd get strong up here, and I 'm not going +to have my summer spoiled by Angus Niel or any other old bogie +man. Stand back now while I cast." + +He swung his rod over his head, and the fly fell with a flop in +the middle of the pool. He waited a breathless instant while +Jock, Sandy, and Jean watched the fly with him, and then, as +nothing happened, he cast again. When several such attempts +brought no result, he said, "You're sure they 're there?" + +"They're lying at the bottom as soft as a baby in a cradle," said +Jean. "I could catch them with a skimmer! Gin they don't bite, +maybe I'll try it!" + +Jock looked at Jean in amazement. + +"You're a braw lassie, Jean Campbell," he said severely, "and you +just telling about Angus Niel!" + +"T'was yourself and Sandy here telling about Angus Niel," Jean +answered. "I said nothing at all about him. I'm not afraid of +him, either." + +"Good for you!" said the new boy with admiration. "You can have a +turn with my rod. Try it once before you get the skimmer!" + +Jean sprang to her feet and took the rod, though she had never +had one like it in her hand before. She made a mighty sweep with +it as she had seen the new boy do, but somehow the fly flew off +in an unexpected direction and caught in a tree, while the line +wound itself in a hopeless snarl around the tip. Jock and Sandy, +who had stood by, green with envy, clapped their hands over their +mouths and danced with mirth. + +"It looks easy," said poor Jean mournfully, "but maybe I'd best +stick to the skimmer when I fish." + +"Oh, it always does that the first time," said the new boy +comfortingly, as he rescued the fly and straightened out the +line. + +"When a girl tries to do it," added Jock witheringly. + +The new boy held out the rod. + +"You try it," he said to Jock, and Jock, full of confidence, did +not wait for a second invitation. + +"Look here, Jean," he said. "This is the way you do it." + +He swung the rod with a mighty flourish over his head, bud alas, +the fly surprised him too. It caught in Sandy's trousers and +surprised Sandy as well. Not only that, it scratched him. + +"Ow!" howled Sandy, leaping about like a monkey on the end of the +string. "Leave go of me!" + +There was a snarl even worse than Jean's, too, and between that +and Sandy's jumping about it was some time before the line was +disentangled and the hook freed so that Sandy was able to take +his turn. Jean, meanwhile, said nothing at all, for Jock looked +so crestfallen that she hadn't the heart. When Sandy tried it +things were still worse, for the fly flew about so wildly that +Jock and Jean fled before it and hid behind some bushes. + +"Whoever could catch fish with such gewgaws as them anyway?" said +Sandy scornfully, when a second attempt brought no better result. +"The fish aren't used to it." + +Jock rolled up his sleeves, crept to the side of the burn, and +looked over into the pool. + +"Hold to me, Sandy," he said, and Sandy immediately sat down on +his legs. Then Jock suddenly plunged his arms into the water and +before the fish could whisk their tails he had caught one in his +hand and thrown it on the grass. + +Springing to his feet and upsetting Sandy, he jumped to a rock in +the middle of the brook and caught two more. It was now the new +boy's turn to be astonished. Apparently Jock had stirred up a +whole school of trout, for Sandy, following Jock's lead, also +leaped into the stream, and in a few moments six fine trout were +flopping about the grass. + +"Let's build a fire and cook them," urged the new boy, whose name +they soon learned was Alan McRae. "And if old Angus Niel comes +nosing around we'll offer him a bite! He can do nothing with four +of us, anyway, unless he shoots us, and he'd hang for that. Come +on!" + +By this time they were all so thrilled with the sport and were +having such fun that nobody thought any more about Angus anyway, +so Jean ran for a pan, while Jock and Sandy cleaned the fish with +Alan's knife, and Alan gathered dry twigs and bracken for the +fire. Jean brought down some scones, which she split and spread +with butter while the fish were frying. When they were done to a +golden brown she put a hot fish on each piece of scone and handed +them out to the boys, and when they had eaten every scrap they +buried the fish-bones in case Angus should come that way. + +After lunch Jean went to wring out the clothes and hang them on +the bushes to dry, while Jock and Sandy examined Alan's wonderful +book of flies and his reel, and even the creel in which he was to +have put the fish, if he had caught any. + +"Losh, man!" exclaimed Sandy, swaggering about with his hands in +his pockets, "that's all very well. Aye, it's a good game, and +you might go dandering along a stream all day playing. with it, +but if you really want fish, just go after 'em yourself! That's +my way. Guddling for trout like you saw me and Jock do, that's +the real sport!" + +"I believe you," said Alan. "I'm going to try it myself. Come on. +Let's go farther up stream and see if we can find another good +fishing-hole. I told Eppie I'd bring her a fish to her tea, and +I'd hate to go back with nothing at all," and the three boys +disappeared in the woods. + +Jean finished her work by the brook and went to the house to make +more scones, for the picnic had exhausted the supply and they +used no other bread. She bustled about the kitchen, mixing, +spreading them on the girdle over the fire, keeping the coals +bright, and turning them out nicely browned on the mixing-board. +She was just finishing the sixth one, when there was a great +thumping at the door, and she ran to see what was the matter. +There on the doorstep stood the three boys, Alan dripping wet +from head to heel, shivering with cold, and with mud and water +running from him in streams. Jean threw up her hands. + +"It's most michty," she cried, "if I can't ever bake scones in +this kitchen without some man body coming in half drowned to mess +up my clean floor! However did you go and drop yourself in the +burn, Alan McRae? 'Deed and I wonder that your mother lets you go +out alone, you're that careless with yourself. And you not long +out of a sick bed, too." + +"He was guddling for trout," shouted Jock and Sandy in one +breath; "and the hole was deep. There was no one sitting on him, +and syne over he went!" + +Jean seized Alan by the shoulder and drew him into the kitchen, +and set him to drip on the hearth while she gave her orders. + +"Jock, do you fill the basin with warm water, and you, Sandy, put +more peat on the fire. He must have a rinse with hot water and +something hot to drink." + +"What'll he do for clothes?" cried Jock. + +"Dinna fash yourself about clothes," said Jean, rummaging +furiously in the "kist." "I'm laying out Father's old kilts he +had when he was a boy. He can put them on till his own things are +dry. Here's a towel for you," she added, tossing one to Alan. +"Rub yourself down well, and when you've dressed, just give a +chap at the door, and I'll come in and get you a sup of tea." + +Then she disappeared. You can imagine what the kitchen looked +like when she came back again. Alan's wet clothes were spread out +on her father's chair by the fire, and Alan, gorgeous in his +plaid kiltie, was strutting back and forth giving an imitation of +the bagpipes on his nose, with Jock and Sandy marching behind him +singing "Do ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay" at the top of +their lungs. + +"Have you gone clean daft?" Jean shouted. "Sit down by the fire and +get out of my way while I mop up after you!" + +The boys each seized one of the kitchen stools without stopping +the song and marched with it to the hearth, and when they came to +"Peel's view halloo would awaken the dead," they gave a howl that +nearly brought down the ham from the rafters as they banged them +down on the hearth-stones. Jean clapped her hands over her ears +and ran for the mop, and in no time at all the puddles had +disappeared and the boys were drinking tea by the fire. + +Of course, Alan had no shoes to put on because his were soaking +wet, and as it was now late in the afternoon it began to be a +question how he should get back to the castle. It was still cold +for going barefoot, and he was not used to it besides, and his +clothes certainly would not be fit to put on for a long time. +They held a consultation. Alan thought he could go without shoes. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind," said Jean firmly. "What sickness +was it you had, anyway?" + +"Measles," said Alan, looking ashamed of it. + +"Measles!" shouted Sandy. "That's naught but a baby disease. My +little sister had that. Sal, but I've had worse things the matter +with me! I've had the fever, and once I cut my toe with the axe!" + +"Hold your tongue, Sandy," said Jean, "and dinna boast! If Alan's +had measles he can't go back to the castle barefoot; so you must +just be stepping yourself, and stop by at the castle to tell +Eppie McLean that Alan will bide here till his things are dry." + +Sandy rose reluctantly and set down his empty mug. + +"Well, then, if I must, I must," he said, +and started off down the hill whistling. + + + +V. EVENING IN THE WEE BIT HOOSIE + +When he was out of sight, Jean brought in the washing and then it +was time to get supper. Alan helped set the table and kept the +fire bright under the pot, while Jock fed the hens and brought in +the eggs; and when the Shepherd and Tam returned from the hills, +you can imagine how surprised they were to find three children +waiting for them instead of two. At supper the Shepherd had to be +told all the adventures of the day and how it happened that Alan +was wearing the kilts, and by the time it was over you would have +thought they had known each other all their lives. While Jean +cleared away the dishes, the Shepherd drew his chair to the fire +and beckoned Alan to him. + +"Come here, laddie," he said, "and give us a look at your +plaidie. It's been lying there in the kist, and I've not seen a +sight of it since I was a lad. It's the Campbell plaid, ye ken, +and I mind once when I was a lad I was on my way home from the +kirk and a hare crossed my path. It's ill luck for a hare to +cross your path, and fine I proved it. I clean forgot it was the +Sabbath and louped the dyke after him. My kiltie caught on a +stone, and there I was hanging upside down. My father loosed me, +but my kiltie was torn and I had to go to bed without my supper +for breaking the Sabbath." + +"Is the hole there yet?" asked Jean. + +"Na, na;" said the Shepherd. "You didn't think your grandmother +was such a thriftless wifie as that! She mended the hole so that +you could never find where it had been." + +He examined fold after fold carefully. + +"There, now," he exclaimed at last, "if you want to see mending +that would make you proud to wear it, look at that." + +Jean and Jock stuck their heads over his shoulder, and Alan +twisted himself nearly in two trying to see his own back. + +"We have a plaid a good deal like this," said Alan, looking +closely at the pattern. "My mother's name was McGregor, but she +has relations named Campbell." + +"Are you really a Scotch body, then?" cried Robin with new +interest in Alan. "I thought you were an English boy." + +"I live in London," Alan answered, "but my mother's people are +all Scotch, and she loves Scotland. That's one reason why she +sent me up here to be with Eppie McLean." + +"Losh, mannie," cried the Shepherd, "if you have Campbell +relatives and your mother's name was McGregor, it's likely you +are a descendant from old Rob Roy himself, and if so, we're all +kinsmen. Inversnaid, where Rob Roy's cave is, is but a few miles +from here, and it was in this very country that he hid himself +among rocks and caves, giving to the poor with his left hand what +he took from the rich with. his right. Well, well, laddie, the +old clans are scattered now, but blood is thicker than water +still, and you're welcome to the fireside of your kinsman!" + +"Is he really a relation?" cried Jean and Jock eagerly. + +"Well," said the Scotchman cautiously, "I'm not saying he is +precisely, but I'm not saying he is not, either. The Campbells +and the McGregors have lived in these parts for better than two +hundred years, and it's not likely that Alan could lay claim to +both names and be no relation at all. If there were still clans, +as there used to be in the old days, we'd all belong to the same +one, and that I do not doubt." + +"I'm sure I'd like that," said Alan, and Jock was so delighted +with his new relative that he stood on his head in the middle of +the floor to express his feelings. When the excitement had died +down a bit, Alan drew his stool up beside the Shepherd's knee and +said: "Won't you please tell us about Rob Roy, Cousin Campbell? +If he's an ancestor of mine, I ought to know more about him." + +"Oh, do, Father," echoed the Twins, planting their stools beside +the other knee. Even Tam was interested. He sat on the hearth in +front of the Shepherd, looking up into his face as if he +understood every word. + +The Shepherd gazed thoughtfully into the fire for a moment; then +he said: "I can tell you what my grandsire told me, and he got it +from his grandsire, so it must be true. In the beginning Rob Roy +was as staunch a man as any, and held his own property like other +gentlemen. Craig Royston was the name of his place, and fine and +proud he was of it, too. He was a gey shrewd man in the cattle- +dealing, and his neighbor, the Duke of Montrose, thinking to +benefit his own estate, lent Rob money to set him up in the +trade. There was a pawky rascal named McDonald who was partner to +Rob, and didn't he run away with the money, leaving Rob in debt +to the Duke and nothing to pay him with? The Duke foreclosed on +Rob at once, and took away Craig Royston and added it to his own +estate. You can well believe that Rob was not the man to take +such dealings with patience. If the Duke had not been so hasty, +Rob would more than likely have got hold of McDonald and made him +pay either out of his purse or out of his skin, but he did +neither the one nor the other. Instead he left his home and took +his clan with him into the mountains and became the terror of the +whole country-side." + +"Wasn't he a good man?" asked Jean, gazing at her father with +round eyes. + +"Well," said the Shepherd, "not just what you'd call pious, +maybe, and it cannot be said that he was aye regular at the kirk. +It's true he never forgot an enemy, but he never forgot a +kindness either and was loyal and true to them that were true to +him." + +"What did he do when they weren't true to him?" asked Jock. + +"He made them wish they had been," replied the Shepherd mildly. + +"But what made the Duke of Montrose take away Craig Royston?" +asked Jock. "Didn't he have a great big place of his own?" + +"Aye," answered Robin, "but what difference does that make? The +more land he had, the more land he wanted, the same as other +lairds. Be that as it may, Craig Royston was certainly taken away +from Rob, and a bitter man it made of him." + +"Why, it's just like ourselves and the Auld Laird," cried Jean. +"He's going to take away our home from us!" + +"It's not just the same, little woman," said the Shepherd, laying +his big brown hand on Jean's small one on his knee. "But the loss +of it hurts just the same. Rob Roy loved Craig Royston no better +than we love this wee bit hoosie." + +"But why must you go, then?" asked Alan, his eyes shining with +interest and sympathy. + +"You see; lad," answered the Shepherd, "it's like the tale of the +dog in the manger. The Auld Laird will neither use the land nor +let us." He explained about the lease, and when he had finished, +Alan said, "But what will you do when you leave this place?" + +"I'm spiering the same question myself," answered the Shepherd. +"As yet I dinna ken." + +"I tell you what," shouted Jock, springing to his feet and +knocking over his stool. "Why don't we live in the caves the way +Rob Roy did? If the Crumpets and all the people who have to give +up their homes should band together in a clan and hide themselves +in the glen, the Auld Laird could send all the Mr. Craigies and +Angus Niels in the world after us and they'd never get us!" + +The Shepherd smiled and shook his head. "The time for that has +gone by," he said sadly. "Na, na, we must just submit. But one +thing I do know, and that is, we'll not seek a place with the +Laird of Kinross. They say he will let his land to none but +members of the Established Church, and I'll not give up my +religion for any man not if I'm forever walking the world!" + +"But come, now," he went on, seeing them downcast, "you all have +faces on you as long as a summer Sabbath. Cheer up, and I'll tell +you a tale my grandfather told me of the water cow of Loch Leven. +You mind the song says, 'The Campbells are coming from bonnie +Loch Leven.' Well, it was around that loch that the Campbells +pastured their cattle. One day when my grandsire was a young lad +he was playing with some other children on the pastures near the +shore, when all of a sudden what should they see among their own +cows but a fine young dun-colored heifer without any horns. She +was lying by herself on the green grass, chewing her cud and +looking so gentle and pretty that the children played around her +without fear. They wound a wreath of daisies and put it on her +neck, and then they got on her back. The cow stretched out longer +and longer to make room for them until they were all on her back +except my grandsire. Then all of a sudden the dun cow rose up, +first on her hind legs, tipping the children all forward, and +then on her forelegs tipping them all back ward, yet no one fell +off at all, and when she was up on her feet, didn't she start +straight away for the deep waters of the loch? The children +screamed and tried to get off her back, but no matter how hard +they tried, there they stuck. My grandsire ran screaming toward +them, and put up his hand to pull them down, and his finger +touched the dun cow's back! Now never believe me, if his finger +didn't stick so he could not pull it away, and by that he knew +the dun heifer for a water cow and that she had bewitched the +children. He was being dragged along with them toward the water, +when all of a sudden he slipped out his knife and with one blow +chopped off his own finger and he was wanting that finger till +the day of his death." + +"What became of the others?" gasped Alan, his black eyes glowing +like coals. + +"They went on the dun cow's back into the lake, and the water +closed over them and they were never seen again," said the +Shepherd, "and that's the end of the tale." + +While the Shepherd talked, the twilight had deepened into +darkness, the fire had died down, and the corners of the room +were filled with mysterious tricky shadows that danced with the +flickering flames on the hearth. Jean looked fearfully over her +shoulder. There was a creepy feeling in the back of her neck, and +Jock's eyes were as round as door-knobs. The Shepherd laughed at +them. + +"Good children have little to fear from the fairy folk," he said. +"Come, now, your eyes are fair sticking out of your heads. I'll +give you a skirl on the bagpipes if Jeanie'll bring them from the +closet. Jock, stir up the fire, and Alan, give your clothes a +turn and see if they are drying." + +The children ran to do these errands, and in a moment the fire +was flaming gayly up the chimney, chasing the murky shadows out +of the corners and making the room bright and cheerful again, +while the Shepherd, tucking the bag under his arm, stirred the +echoes on old Ben Vane with the wild strains of "Bonnie Doon" and +"Over the Water to Charlie." At last he struck up the music of +the Highland Fling, and the three children sprang to the middle +of the floor and danced the wild Scotch dance together. + +Just as the fun was at its height, and Alan, looking very +handsome in his kilts, was doing the heel and toe with great +energy, there came a loud rap at the door. Instantly everything +stopped, just as short as Cinderella's ball did when the clock +struck twelve, and the Shepherd, laying aside his bagpipes, +opened the door. There stood a man with a bundle on his arm. +"Eppie McLean sent these clothes to the lad," he said, handing +the bundle to the Shepherd, "and he's to come back along with +me." Alan took the bundle, thanked the man, and disappeared with +Jock into "the room," where he changed his clothes, returning the +kilts, with regret, to Jock. "I've had just a grand day," he said +to Jean and the Shepherd as he shook hands and took leave of them +in the kitchen afterward. "I'll be back to-morrow for my +clothes." + +"Come back and play then," said Jock. + +When he was gone, Jean folded the kilts away in the closet again. +"He's a fine braw laddie," said the Shepherd. + +"Aye," said Jock. "He had two suits of clothes, one as good as +the other, but he was not proud." + +"I wonder what his father's work is," said Jean. + +"He never spoke of his father at all, just his mother," said +Jock, and at that moment the wag-at-the-wall clock struck nine. + +"Havers!" said Jean. "Look at the hour, Jock Campbell! Get you to +your bed." + + + +VI. TWO DISCOVERIES + +That night Jock dreamed of water cows, and clans dressed in +kilts, and when Sandy appeared the next morning, his head was +still buzzing with wild schemes of adventure. + +"Come awa', Sandy," he said, "let's explore. We'll go up the burn +and see if we can't find out where it begins." + +"What'll we do for lunch?" asked Sandy, who was practical. "I +brought a scone with me--but it'll never be enough for two." + +"Ho!" said Jock. "If Rob Roy and all his men could live in caves +all the time and take care of themselves, I guess we can do it +for one day. We can fish, and maybe we might find some birds' +eggs. I'm not afraid." + +"What about Alan?" asked Jean. + +"If he comes to play, tell him to follow us right up the burn and +keep whistling the pewit's call three times over, and if we don't +see him, we'll hear him," said Jock. "There's no danger of not +finding us if he follows the water," and he and Sandy set forth +at once. + +Jean had finished her work and was wondering what to do with the +long day which stretched before her, when Alan came running up +the hill and burst into the kitchen. + +"Look here what I've got, Jean," he said, thumping a parcel down +on the kitchen table and tearing it open. "Eppie put this up for +me." + +Jean looked and there was a whole pound of bacon, three big +scones, and a dozen eggs. "Save us!" cried Jean, clasping her +hands in admiration. "What will you do with it all?" + +"I'll show you!" said Alan. "Where's Jock?" + +"He and Sandy have gone up the burn, exploring," said Jean. "They +said you were to follow, and if you didn't find them, keep +whistling the pewit's call three times till they answered you." + +"What is the pewit's call?" asked Alan. + +"Michty me!" said Jean. "Think of not knowing that!" She pursed +up her lips and whistled "Pee-wit, pee-wit, pee-wit." + +"You see, we don't have them in London;" Alan apologetically +explained, "unless it's in the Zoo; but I say, Jean, aren't you +coming, too? You're as good as a boy any day. Come along!" + +"All right," said Jean. "I wanted to dreadfully. I'll get a +basket for the lunch." She went to the closet and brought out a +basket which her father had made out of split willow twigs, +packed the lunch in it, and off they started. + +They passed the place where the fishbones were buried, and the +spot where Alan had fallen into the water the day before, and +then plunged into the deep pine forest which filled the glen and +covered the mountain-sides. The pine-needles lay thick on the +ground, and above them the pine boughs waved in the breeze, +making a soft sighing sound, "like a giant breathing," Jean said. +The silence deepened as they went farther and farther into the +woods. There was only the purring of the water, the occasional +snapping of a twig, or the lonely cry of a bird to break the +stillness. It was dark, too, except where the sunshine, breaking +through the thick branches overhead, made spots of golden light +upon the pine-needles. + +"It's almost solemn; isn't it?" said Jean to Alan in a hushed +voice. "I was never so far in the woods before." + +"I wonder which side of the burn the boys went. If we should +take the wrong side, we might not find them," said Alan. + +"Let's whistle," said Jean. She puckered her lips and gave the +pewit call, but there was no answer. + +"Perhaps they didn't hear it because the burn makes such a noise. +It keeps growing louder and louder," said Alan. + +Whistling and listening for an answer at every few steps, they +climbed over rocks and fallen trees, keeping as close as possible +to the stream, until suddenly they found themselves gazing up at +a beautiful waterfall which came gushing from a pile of giant +rocks reaching up among the topmost boughs of the pines. + +"Oh, it's bonny! but how shall we get up?" cried Jean. + +"We must just find a way," said Alan. + +"It's a grand place for robbers and +poachers," said Jean, looking fearsomely at the cliffs stretching +far above them. "Angus Niel says the forests are full of them." + +"I'd as soon meet a poacher as Angus Niel himself," said Alan, +laughing, "but I'm not afraid as long as you're with me. It's +Angus that's afraid of you, Jock says." + +Jean laughed too. "I'm not afraid when I'm in my own kitchen, but +it's different in the woods," she said. + +Alan had been nosing around among the rocks as they talked, +getting nearer and nearer to the fall, and now he suddenly +disappeared, and for a few moments Jean was quite alone in the +woods. Soon Alan reappeared from behind the fall itself and +beckoned her to follow him. + +Jean was looking at the wall of rock which loomed above them. +"Sal!" she remarked, "we'll be needing wings to get up there, or +we'll smash all the eggs for sure." + +For answer Alan popped out of sight again behind the fall, and +Jean, following closely in his wake, was just in time to catch +sight of his legs as he dived into a hole opening into the rocky +wall. The cliff from which the water plunged overhung the rocks +below in such a way that she could pass behind the veil of water +without getting wet at all. + +Into this mysterious opening behind the fall Jean followed her +leader, and found herself climbing a narrow dry channel through +which the stream had once forced its way. It was a hard, rough +scramble up a narrow passage worn by the water and through holes +almost too small to squeeze through, but at last she saw Alan's +heels just disappearing over the edge of a jutting rock and knew +they were coming out into daylight again. An instant later Alan's +head appeared in the opening, his hand reached down to help her +up, and with one last effort she came out upon an open ledge and +looked about her. + +She could not help an exclamation of delight at what she saw. The +rock was so high that they could look out over the treetops clear +to the slope where the little gray house stood. The waterfall, +plunging from a still higher level, made a barrier on one side of +them, and on the other side the cliff rose, a sheer wall of rock. +Between the wall of water and the wall of rock there was a cave +extending into the solid rock for a distance of about twenty +feet. There was absolutely no way of reaching this fastness +except through the hidden stair, and one might wander for years +through the forest and never see it at all. + +"Oh," exclaimed Jean, "it's wonderful! How Jock will love this +place! Don't you believe this very cave was used by Rob Roy and +his men?" and Alan, swelling with pride to think he had found it +all himself, said yes, he was sure of it. + +"I tell you what we'll do," cried Alan, a minute later. "We'll +just leave the basket here in the cave, and when we've found the +boys we'll come back and have our lunch here." + +They tucked the basket away out of sight on a rocky shelf in the +cave, and found their way down the steep rough stairway to the +bed of the stream again and, making a wide detour, came out above +the fall. They struggled on for nearly a mile farther still +without finding any trace of the boys, and were beginning to be +discouraged, when they saw a break in the trees with glimpses of +blue sky beyond, and a few moments later came out upon the shores +of a tiny mountain lake, shining like a beautiful blue jewel in +the dark setting of the pine trees on its banks. + +Beyond the lake the purple peaks of higher mountains made a +ragged outline against the sky. The sun was now almost directly +overhead; the waters of the lake were still, and its lovely +shores were mirrored on the placid surface. A great eagle soared +in stately circles in the deep blue sky. It was so beautiful and +so still that the children stood a moment among the rocks where +the tarn emptied itself into the mountain stream to look at it. + +"It's just the place for a water cow, or a horse maybe," Jean +whispered to Alan. + +"Sh!" was Alan's only reply. He seized Jean's hand and dragged +hear down behind a rock and pointed toward the south. There, +coming out of the woods, was a beautiful stag. It poised its +noble head, and sniffed the air, as if it suspected there might +be human beings about, and then stepped daintily to the lake- +shore and bent to drink. Its lips had scarcely touched the water +when the children were startled by the loud report of a gun. + +"Poachers," gasped Jean, hiding her face and wishing they had +never come. "Oh, where are Jock and Sandy?" Her only thought was +to make herself as small as possible and keep out of sight behind +the rocks, but Alan peered through the screen of bushes which hid +the rock and made violent gestures to Jean to make her look, too. +Jean crawled on her hands and knees to Alan's side, and when she +looked, what she saw made her so angry that she would have sprung +to her feet if Alan had not held her down with a fierce grip. The +stag was lying by the lake-shore, and a man with the muzzle of +his gun still smoking was running toward it from the woods. The +man was Angus Niel! + +Jean was so astonished that for an instant she could not believe +her own eyes. The two children flattened themselves out on their +stomachs and watched him pull a boat from its hiding-place among +some bushes on the shore, paddle quietly to the spot where the +dead stag lay, and load it swiftly into the boat. Then he raced +back to the woods again and reappeared, carrying a string of dead +rabbits. These also he crowded into the boat, and then, taking up +the oars, rowed across the lake to a landing-place on the other +side. The children watched him, scarcely breathing in their +excitement, until he had unloaded his game from the boat and +disappeared into the woods, dragging the body of the stag after +him. In a few moments he came back for the rabbits and, having +disposed of them in the same mysterious way, returned to the +boat. + +Then Jean exploded in a fierce whisper. "The old thief!" she +said, shaking her fist after him. "He's the poacher himself! +That's why he never brings any one before the bailie, though he's +always telling about catching them at it! And he making such a +fuss because Jock chased the rabbit that was eating up our +garden! Oh, oh, oh!" + +She clutched Alan and shook him in her boiling indignation. Alan +laughed and shook her back. "I didn't do it, you little +spitfire!" he whispered, and Jean moaned, "Oh, I know it, Alan, +but I can't catch him and I'm so angry I've just got to do +something to somebody." + +"Do you know what that old thief does?" said Alan. "He sends +that game down to the city--to Glasgow, or Edinburgh, or even +London, maybe--and gets a lot of money for it! No wonder he tells +big stories to make people afraid to go into the woods." + +"I hope he won't meet the boys," moaned Jean. "Jock would be sure +to let his tongue loose, and then maybe he'd shoot him too!" + +"Listen," said Alan. He gave the pewit's call and waited. It was +answered from a point so near that they were startled. They +looked in every direction but saw nothing of the boys. + +"Maybe it was a real pewit after all," whispered Jean, but just +then a tiny pebble struck Alan's cap, and, looking around in the +direction from which it came, he saw two freckled faces rise up +from behind the rock on the opposite side of the spring. + +"There they are," he said, punching Jean and pointing; "they came +up the other side of the burn." Then, making a cup of his hands, +he called across the stream, "Did you see him?" The boys nodded. +"Slip back as fast as you can down that side of the burn," Alan +said, "and we'll meet at the fall. Wait at the foot if you get +there first. We've got something to show you. Whist, and be +quick, for he'll be coming back before long, and this way like as +not." + +Jock and Sandy nodded and disappeared, and Alan and Jean, +springing from their hiding-place, hurried as fast as they could +down their side of the stream to the trysting-place. + + + +VII. THE CLAN + +When Jean and Alan reached the waterfall, they found Jock and Sandy +there before them. "Come over to our side," Alan called. The two boys +ran further down stream and crossed the brook on stones which stood +out of the water, and in a moment more were back again at the foot of +the fall. + +"What have you got to show us?" demanded Jock. "I hope it's +something to eat." Jock had bitterly regretted his morning +decision to find his food in the forest. The scone which Sandy +had brought from home had been divided and eaten long ago; and +all four of the children were now so hungry that they could think +of nothing else, not even of Angus Niel and their adventures by +the lake. + +Alan looked cautiously around in every direction. "Follow me, and +keep quiet tongues in your heads," he said. Then he disappeared +under the fall, and Jean instantly followed him. For a moment +Jock and Sandy were as mystified as Jean had been when Alan first +found the secret stairway, but it was not long before they, too, +saw the hole in the rock, plunged in and, following the winding +passage-way, came out upon the top of the rock. + +"There," said Alan, beaming with pride, as he displayed his +wonderful lair, "doesn't this beat Robinson Crusoe all to pieces? +If he had found a place like this on his desert island, he +wouldn't have had to build a stockade or anything." + +"It's one of the very caves where Rob Roy hid! I'm sure of it," +Jock declared with conviction, and Sandy was so overcome with +admiration that he turned a back somersault and almost upset +Jean, who was coming out of the cave with the basket on her arm. + +"You see," said Alan, "we could stay here a week if we had food +enough, and never come down at all. All we'd have to do for water +would be to hold a pan under the edge of the fall. There's no way +of getting up here except by the secret stair, and that's not +easy to find. There never was such a place for fun." + +Sandy had righted himself by this time and was gazing +ecstatically at the basket, which Jean had begun to unpack. +"Losh!" he cried. "Look, Jock! Bacon and eggs and scones! Oh, my +word!" Jock gave one look and whooped for joy. + +"Keep still," said Alan. "Angus may be coming back this way, and +he has a gun with him. We're safe enough up here, if we keep +quiet, but if you go howling around like that, he'll surely hunt +for the noise." + +For a moment they kept quiet and listened, but there was no sound +except the noise of the falling waters. "Huh!" Sandy snorted, "he +couldn't hear anything, anyway. The roar of the fall hides all +the other noises." + +"Oh, let's eat!" begged Jock, caressing his empty stomach and +gazing longingly at the food. + +"You can't eat now," said Jean; "the food must be cooked first, +and what shall we do for a fire?" + +"We could make one right here on the rock," said Alan, "if we had +something to burn. I've got matches." + +"We'll have to get twigs and dry pine-needles and broken +branches," said Jock, "and bring them up the secret stair, though +it'll be hard work getting them through the narrow places. We +ought to have a rope. We could pull a basketful up over the edge +of the rock as easy as nothing." + +"We'll bring a rope next time," said Alan. "Hurry! I'm starving!" + +The three boys disappeared down the secret stair, and while they +were gone, Jean found loose stones, with which she made a support +for the frying-pan around a space for the fire. The boys were +soon back with plenty of small fuel, and in a short time a bright +fire was blazing on the rock and there was a wonderful smell of +frying bacon in the air. The boys sat cross-legged around the +fire, while Jean turned the bacon and broke the eggs into the +sputtering fat. + +"You look just exactly like Tam watching the rabbit-hole," +laughed Jean. "I wonder you don't paw the ground and bark!" + +At last the scones were handed out, each one laden with a slice +of bacon and a fried egg, and there was blissful silence for some +moments. + +"Oh, aren't you glad you didn't die of the measles and miss +this?" Sandy said to Alan, rolling over on his back and waving +his legs in the air as he finished his third egg. Alan's mouth +was too full for a reply other than a cordial grunt. + +"Why, Sandy Crumpet!" exclaimed Jean, reprovingly, "don't you +believe heaven is nicer than Scotland?" + +"Maybe it is," Sandy admitted, doubtfully, "but I like this +better than sitting around playing on harps and trumpets the way +the angels do." + +"Sandy Crumpet played the trumpet," howled Jock in derision. +"Indeed and indeed, Sandy, I like this better than having to hear +you." Then, before Sandy could think of an answer a memory of the +catechism crossed his mind, and he added as afterthought, "How do +you ken you're one of the elect, anyway, Sandy Crumpet? If you're +not, you'd not be playing on any trumpets, or harps either, but +like as not frying in the hot place like that bacon there." + +Sandy rushed to the defense of his character. "I'm just as elect +as you are, Jock Campbell," he said. + +This time Jock had no answer ready, and Jean reproved them both. +"Shame on you!" she said. "You'll neither one of you get so much +as a taste of heaven, I doubt, and you talking like that." + +"Where will Angus Niel be going, then, when he dies?" asked Jock. +"I don't just mind whether there's a chance for thieves, but the +Bible says drunkards and such-like stand no chance at all." + +"It's not for us to judge," said Jean primly, "but I have my +opinion." + +Alan had been busily eating during this conversation, and now he +joined in. "I say," he began, "I'm not worrying about what will +become of Angus Niel after he's dead. I want to know what's going +to be done with him right now. We're the only ones that know +about this. Are we just going to keep whist, or shall we tell on +him?" + +"Let's tell on him!" shouted Sandy. + +"Who'll you be telling?" said Jean with some scorn. + +"Why, the bailie, maybe, or the Auld Laird himself," said Sandy. + +"Havers!" said Jean. "You're a braw lad to go hobnobbing with +the bailie. He'll not believe you, anyway; he's a friend of Angus +himself, and, as for the Auld Laird, how would you get hold of +him at all, and he far away in London?" + +Sandy subsided, crushed, and then Jock had a bright idea. "I tell +you what we'll do," he cried, springing to his feet. "Let's have +a clan, like Rob Roy, and we'll just badger the life out of Angus +Niel. We'll never let him know who we are, but keep kim forever +stepping and give him no rest. If he thinks somebody's following +him up all the time, he'll not sleep easy o' nights!" + +This suggestion was greeted with riotous applause. "He'd not +sleep easy if he knew Jean was after him, I'll go bail," laughed +Alan. + +"Hooray!" shouted Sandy, waving his legs frantically. "What shall +we call it?" + +"Let's call it the Rob Roy Clan," said Alan. + +"Hooray!" roared Sandy again. + +"If we're a Clan, we'll have to have a chief," said Jean, "and if +the Chief bids us do anything, we'll just have to do it. That's +the way it was in the real Rob Roy Clan. Father said so." + +"Jock thought of it first. Let him be Chief," said Alan. + +"No!" cried Jean promptly. "Are you thinking I'll put my head in +a bag like that, and he my own brother? 'Deed, I'd never get a +lick of work out of him on Saturday if I did! Na, na, lads! +Whoever's Chief, it won't be Jock." + +"Maybe you'd like to be the Chief yourself," retorted Jock, "but +it's enough to be bossed by you at home! Besides, whoever heard +of a girl being Chief, anyway?" + +"Alan can be Chief," said Jean, and so the matter was settled. + +"If I'm Chief," said Alan, "you'll all have to swear an oath of +fealty to me." + +"What's an oath of fealty?" Jock demanded suspiciously, and Jean +added in a shocked voice, "Alan, you'd never be asking us to take +the name of the Lord in vain!" + +"It's not that kind of an oath," laughed Alan. "You just have to +vow to obey the Chief in everything." Then an idea popped into +his head. "In a real Clan they are all kinsmen, but here's Sandy, +and he's neither Campbell nor McGregor. We'll have to make a +blood brother of him before he can join." + +"What's a blood brother? How do you make 'em?" asked Sandy. + +"I'll show you," said Alan. He drew his knife from his pocket and +while the other three watched him in breathless admiration, he +made a little cut in his wrist and immediately passed the knife +to Jock. "You do the same," he commanded. + +Jock obeyed his Chief and passed the knife to Jean, who promptly +followed his example. + +"Now, Sandy," said Alan. + +Sandy hated the sight of blood, and he was a little pale under +his freckles as he shut his eyes and jabbed himself gingerly with +the point. Then Alan took a drop of blood from each wrist and +mingled them with a drop from Sandy's. + +"Now, Sandy," he said, as he stirred the compound into a gory +paste, "you repeat after me, 'My foot is on my native heath, my +name it is McGregor.'" Sandy obeyed with solemnity, and, this +important ceremony over, Alan pronounced him a member of the Clan +in good and regular standing. + +Then, by the Chief's orders, Jean, Jock, and Sandy, each in turn +placed their hands under Alan's hand, while they promised to obey +him without question in all matters pertaining to the Clan. + +"Only," said Jean, "you mustn't tell us to do anything wrong." + +"I won't," promised Alan. And so the Rob Roy Clan came into +being. + +Alan took command at once. "We must have a sign," he said. "Just +like Clan Alpine in 'The Lady of the Lake.' Go, my henchmen," he +cried, striking a noble attitude, and waving his hand toward the +forest, "bring hither sprays of the Evergreen Pine, and we'll +stick 'em in our bonnets just like Roderick Dhu and his men. +Roderick Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! iero!" + +The two boys instantly disappeared down the hole in the rock on +this errand, leaving Jean and Alan to guard the cave. + + + +VIII. THE POACHERS + +While all these things were happening, Angus Niel had returned +from his errand across the little lake, and was making his way +slowly toward home, following the course of the stream. As he +came near the fall he stopped and sniffed. There was certainly a +most appetizing smell of bacon in the air! + +"It can't be!" he said aloud to himself. He sniffed again, and +his face turned purple with rage. "Meat," he snorted, "as I live! +The bold rascals! Poaching in broad daylight and cooking their +game right under my nose!" It wasn't under his nose at all, of +course, for the rock was far above him, and it wasn't game +either. + +"I'll soon cure them of that trick," he muttered, as he climbed +silently over the rocks and gazed searchingly about. It was not +long before he caught sight of a thin curl of blue smoke rising +from the top of the rock. + +"Aha!" he growled under his breath, "I've got you now, my bold +gentlemen! I'll teach you to flaunt your thefts in the face of +the Laird's own gamekeeper, once I get my hands on you!" At once +he began nosing about the rocks in search of the path by which +the poachers had climbed the cliff. + +Meanwhile Sandy and Jock had found the sprays of the Evergreen +Pine and were on their way back to the cave with them, when Jock +suddenly seized Sandy by the arm and ducked down behind a +boulder. There, not a hundred feet away, stood Angus Niel gazing +up at the top of the rock! His back was toward them, and the +noise of the waterfall had drowned out the sound of voices, or +they surely would not have escaped his notice. As it was, they +slipped behind the fall, whisked into the hole, and began +climbing the secret stair like two frightened squirrels. An +instant later they startled Alan and Jean, who were in the cave, +by dashing in after them on all fours. + +"What on earth is the matter?" cried Jean. + +"Matter, indeed!" gasped Jock, out of breath. "Angus Niel is down +there, and he's seen the smoke! He almost saw us, but we just +gave him the slip and got by." + +"Keep out of sight, all of you," commanded the Chief, "and leave +him to me." + +The obedient Clan flattened themselves against the back of the +cave, while Alan crept to the edge of the rock on his stomach +like a lizard, and, lying there, was able to peep through the +thick screen of leaves and see what was going on below. The +gamekeeper was still scrambling over the rocks and looking, as +Alan said afterward, "for all the world like a dog who had lost +the trail and was trying to find it again." + +As the look-out was well screened, Alan soon allowed the rest of +the Clan to join him, and Angus Niel little guessed, as he +prowled about over the rocks, that every move was watched from +above. Despairing of finding the path, he decided at last to get +up a tree and make an observation. He selected a large pine which +grew near the cave and began to climb. + +So long as he stood on the ground, the children knew it was +impossible for Angus to see them, but when he began to climb, +they scuttled back into the cave as fast as they could go. + +Climbing is hard work for a fat man, and the gamekeeper found +himself covered with pitch before he had gone more than halfway +up, but he puffed on in spite of difficulties and at last reached +a point from which he could look directly across the surface of +the rock, but from which the cave was entirely hidden behind a +projection in the wall of the cliff. + +Angus saw what he supposed to be the whole shelf of the rock, and +he saw that there was no one there. He could see the fire and the +frying-pan, the egg shells lying about, and even the portion of +bacon that Jean had not cooked. They were all in full view, but +apparently the poachers had gone away into the woods, leaving +their airy camp deserted. There was no one there; of that he +felt, certain. + +"I'll just give'em a surprise," thought the gamekeeper to +himself. "If they found a way up, I can, too. I'll help myself to +a snack of that bacon, and if they come back and find me--well, I +have my gun with me and I don't like being interrupted at my +meals." + +He backed down the tree like a fat cat, and made a desperate +search for the path, and this time he actually succeeded in +finding it. He chuckled to himself as he plunged into the passage +and began to climb. He had gone about a third of the way up, when +he reached the narrowest point of the channel and tried to force +himself through, but the space was so small that no matter how +much he tried, he could not get by. His gun was in his way too, +but he could not leave it below, as that would be putting it into +the hands of the poachers if they should return too soon. + +In vain he twisted and squirmed, he could get no farther, and +moreover he was afraid the gun might go off by accident in his +struggles. When he found that he could not possibly go up, he +decided to go down; but he found, to his horror, that he couldn't +do that either. There he stuck, and an angrier man than Angus +Niel it would have been hard to find. A projecting rock punched +him in the stomach, and when he pressed back against the rock +behind him, to free himself, he scraped the skin off his back. +Casting prudence to the winds, he howled with pain and rage, and +the sound, carried up through the narrow passage, echoed in the +cave like the roar of a lion. + +The children, meanwhile, had kept in hiding, and when they heard +these blood-curdling sounds, they at first did not know what +caused them, because, of course, they could not see what was +happening below, but they knew very soon that they were not made +by a wild animal because wild animals do not swear. + +"It's Angus, stuck in the secret stairway," Alan said, smothering +his laughter. "He's too fat to get through!" He crept to the edge +and peeped down the hole. There, far below, he could see the top +of Angus's head and the muzzle of his gun. + +The Chief was a boy of great presence of mind. He backed hastily +away from the hole and ran to the fall, snatching up the pan as +he passed. This he filled with water and, rushing back, he +instantly sent a small deluge down upon the head of the hapless +Angus. + +The gamekeeper was dumbfounded by this new attack. Had he not +with his own eyes seen that the rocky shelf was empty? How, then, +could this thing be? He rolled his eyes upward, but there was no +one in sight. He had heard all his life tales of witches and +water cows, of spells cast upon people by fairies, of their being +borne away by them into mountain caverns and held as prisoners +for years and years; and he made up his mind that such a fate had +now befallen him. + +Firmly convinced that he was the victim of enchantment, he became +palsied with terror, arid began to plead with the unseen +tormentors who he believed held him in thrall. "Only leave me +loose, dear good little people," he howled, "and I'll never, +never trouble you more!" + +At this point Alan, shaking with mirth, sent down another panful +of water, and Angus, redoubling his efforts, wrenched himself +free, scraping off quantities of skin as he did so. They could +hear him scuttling down the secret stair as fast as his legs +would carry him, and when he emerged below, they watched him +hurry away through the forest, casting fearful glances over his +shoulder as he ran. Alan made a hollow of his two hands and sent +after him a wild note, like the wailing of a banshee. + +"Angus Niel, Angus Niel," rose the piercing note, "bring back my +beautiful stag, my stag that lived by the tarn!" + +As the sound reached his ears, Angus redoubled his speed, and +they could hear him crashing through the underbrush as if the +devil himself were really at his heels. + +When the sounds died away in the distance, the Rob Roy Clan +rolled on the floor of the cave with laughter. + +"There!" said Alan, as he sat up and wiped his eyes. "That'll fix +Angus Niel! We've scared him out of a year's growth, and he'll +never dare meddle with this place again. Come on, now. It's time +to go home, but to-morrow we'll come back and fix this place up +in a way that would make Robinson Crusoe green with envy." + +They carefully put water on the ashes of their fire, stuck the +sprigs of Evergreen Pine in their bonnets, and sped down the +secret stairway and home. + + + +IX. A RAINY DAY + +The next morning, as she was finishing the beds, Jean heard the +pewit call and at once knew that the Clan was abroad. She ran to +the door, and the three boys came in together,--Jock from the +garden, where he had been pulling weeds in the potato-patch, and +Sandy and Alan from the road. They were carrying a large basket, +and Sandy was laden down with a coil of rope in addition. + +"What have you got there?" demanded Jean. + +"Stores for the Cave," said Alan, "and a rope to let down from +the rock. Come on; let's go as soon as we can, for it looks like +rain and we've got a lot to do to get the cave ready for wet +weather." + +"Where did you get 'em?" asked Jock, eyeing the basket with +interest and wondering what was inside. + +"Oh," said Alan, "I just asked Eppie. She lets me have anything I +want. My mother told her to stuff me while I'm here, and if I +take the food off to the woods with me she doesn't have to cook +it at home, so she's suited, and I am, too." + +Jean hastily gathered together a few cooking utensils, and a few +minutes later the four set forth, carrying the provisions and wearing +proudly in their bonnets the sprig of pine, the insignia of the Clan. +The sky was downcast and the woods seemed dark and gloomy as they +made their way toward the waterfall. + +"What'll we do if it rains?" cried Sandy. "It's no such fine +thing just sitting still in a cave." + +"I've a plan in my head," said the Chief. "Wait and see." + +As they reached the fall, Alan sent Sandy and Jock to gather +wood, while Jean guarded the basket at the foot of the rock and +he himself darted up the secret stairway with the rope. From the +top he let down the rope and Jean fastened it through the handles +of the basket. Alan then drew it up, emptied the contents, and +sent back the basket for the wood which Sandy and Jock had by +that time collected. + +They all worked as swiftly as possible, for the woods were +growing darker and darker every minute and they could now hear +the roll of thunder above the noise of the waterfall. They had +gathered and sent up six basketfuls, when the rain came splashing +down in earnest, and the Clan scrambled up the secret stair and +into the cave for shelter. Alan had piled the wood in the cave as +fast as he had pulled it up, and there was now a fine pile of dry +fuel. + +"Sandy, you build the fire," commanded the Chief, seating himself +on the wood-pile. + +"The rain will put it out," said Sandy. + +"Make it in the cave," said Alan. + +"Then the smoke will put us out," cried Jean. + +"Try it and see," said Alan. "We can't have lunch without a fire, +for I've brought mealy puddings." + +"Mealy puddings!" cried Sandy, licking his lips, and he went to +work with a will. Fortunately the wind blew from the east, so +they were not absolutely choked by the smoke, and soon the fire +was burning briskly; making a spot of flaming color against the +dark background of the cave. Jock ran to the fall and filled the +pan with water, and soon the mealy puddings were bobbing merrily +about in the boiling water, while the boys, snug and safe in the +shelter of the cave, watched the boughs of the pine trees swaying +in the wind and waited for Jean to tell them that dinner was +ready. She could cook but one thing at a time over the fire, but +it was not long before the feast was spread, and they fell to +with appetites that caused the food to disappear like dew before +the morning sun. + +"Losh!" said Sandy, rolling over with his feet to the fire, when +he could eat no more, "I thought you said you had a rainy day +plan, Chief." + +"So I have," said Alan, drawing a little book from his pocket. +"I'm going to read to you." + +Sandy glanced at the book. "Not poetry, Chief!" he said with +alarm. "Surely you don't mean that!" + +"It isn't just poetry," said Alan. "It's a story about Roderick +Dhu and Clan Alpine, and hunting deer in these very mountains. +You'll like it, I know." + +Sandy groaned and laid his head on his arm. "Go ahead," he said +with resignation. "You're the Chief and I can't help myself." + +"I'll be washing up the dishes while you read," said Jean. + +"Blaze away," said Jock, who loved books as much as he disliked +work. + +"It's 'The Lady of the Lake,'" Alan began. + +"Oh!" snorted Sandy, to whom Walter Scott was scarcely more than +a name, "I thought it was about fighting and robbers, and things +like that, and here it's about a lady! and it's about love too, I +doubt! I wonder at you, Alan McRae!" + +Alan made no reply but began to read. When he reached a line +about "Beauty's matchless eye," Sandy snored insultingly and was +promptly kicked by Jock. But when Alan reached the lines + +"The stag at eve had drunk his fill +Where danced the moon on Monan's rill," + +Sandy sat up and began to think the despised poem might amount to +something after all. Jean had finished the dishes by this time +and sat cross-legged with her chin in her hand, staring into the +fire, as Alan read how the splendid stag pursued by hunters, + + "Like crested leader proud and high + Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky; + A moment gazed adown the dale, + A moment snuffed the tainted gale," + +Then she cried out, "Michty me! It's just exactly like the stag +we saw Angus Niel shoot by the tarn; isn't it, now, Alan?" + +"And Benvoirlich is the very mountain we can see far away to the +south from our house," interrupted Jock, when Alan reached that +part of the poem. + +"Did the hunters get the stag?" demanded Sandy, and "Go on with +the tale," shouted all three. Alan read on and on by the +flickering light of the fire, and so absorbed were they all in +the story of the region they knew and loved so dearly that a +shaft of sunlight from the west shot across the cave, lighting up +the gloomy corners, before they realized that the day was far +gone and the rain had stopped. + +"It's time to go home," said Jean. "The sun is low in the west, +and Father and Tam will be coming back wet and hungry from the +hills, and no broth hot." + +They packed the remainder of their supper carefully away in the +basket and left it in the corner of the cave behind the woodpile, +put out every spark of the fire, and picked their way carefully +down the wet chasm to the ground. + +"Hark," said Jock, as they started home. Faraway in the distance +there was the frantic barking of a dog. They stopped and +listened. + +"It's Tam," said Jean, with conviction, "and he's after +something. It's either the rabbit or else he's found a weasel +hole," and instantly all the children were off at a bound, +tearing through the woods in the direction of the sound. They had +been, having such a good time they had not once thought of Angus +Niel, but as they reached the edge of the forest, there he was, +standing behind a tree with his gun pointing toward the little +gray house! They stopped short in their wild race and instantly +hid themselves among the trees. They could see Tam barking and +pawing the ground with the greatest excitement in the open field +which lay between the forest and the garden-patch. + +"Tam's after the rabbit as sure as sure," Jock whispered to Alan, +who had crept with him underneath a spreading pine. "That's the +very place where he went after him before. If that old thief +kills Tam, I'll--I'll--" Jock could think of no fit punishment +for such a crime, and in his rage and excitement would have run +right out into the open, after the dog if Alan had not held him +by his jacket. "Let go--let go!" said Jock, struggling to get +away. "I tell you, if he shoots that dog" + +Just then a brown flash appeared from the garden wall, and Tam +was after it at a bound, barking like mad. "It's the rabbit, and +he's got him--he's got him!" murmured Jock, bouncing up and down +with excitement with Alan still clinging to his coat. "Good old +dog! good old Tam!" He was watching the dog so intently that he +did not see Angus take careful aim, but the moment Tam reached +the rabbit, seized it in his teeth, and shook it, a shot rang +out; and the dog, with a howl of pain, dropped the rabbit and ran +yelping toward the house on three legs, holding the fourth one in +the air. + +Angus immediately ran out from his hiding-place, leaped the +brook, and, dashing up the slope toward the house, picked up the +dead rabbit and ran with it back into the woods. The children +watched him as he fled, and, the moment he was out of sight, they +burst from the shelter of the woods and tore up the hillside to +the little gray house. + +They found Tam sitting on the door-step licking his paw and +howling. He was instantly surrounded by four amateur doctors all +anxious to relieve his pain. Jock ran for water to wash his leg, +the flesh of which had been cruelly torn open by the bullet. Jean +ransacked the kist for bandages, and Alan held up the injured paw +and tried to see if any bones were broken, while Sandy helplessly +stroked Tam's tail, murmuring, "Good dog! good old Tam!" as he +did so. By dint of their combined efforts the wound was cleansed +and carefully bound with a rag, and by the time the Shepherd got +home, Tam was lying on the hearth beside the fire, with Alan on +his knees before him feeding him broth from a pan. + +The Shepherd listened with a darkening brow to the story of Tam's +injury. He had heard an account of the stag the day before, so +the new revelation of Angus's character did not surprise him, but +when Alan rose from his knees and said, "To-morrow the Rob Roy +Clan will begin to make Angus Niel wish he'd never been born," +Robin Campbell's comment was, "Give him rope enough and he'll +hang himself, laddie," and Alan, his black eyes flashing with +understanding, answered, "We'll see to it that he gets the rope." + + + +X. ON THE TRAIL + +Alan and Sandy left the little gray house in the late afternoon +and walked together down the river road toward the village. At +the bridge which spanned the stream they parted company, and Alan +gave Sandy final instructions as to his duties on the next day. +He was to watch Angus Niel's house, which lay some distance north +of the village, and see what direction he took as he started upon +his daily tour in the forests. + +The estate of Glencairn covered a territory so large that Angus +could not by any possibility make his rounds in one day or even +in one week. The Clan knew well where he had spent his time for +the two preceding days, and they thought he would be likely to +start in a different direction on the morrow. They did not dare +count upon his doing so, however, and so Sandy was detailed to +give a positive report as to his movements. The next morning, +therefore, found Sandy sitting on a stone dyke not a great way +from Angus's house, apparently absorbed in whittling and +whistling, but in reality keeping a sharp lookout for any sign of +life in the Niel household. He had not long to wait before he saw +Angus leave the house and wander away into the forest with his +gun on his shoulder. As they had surmised, he took a direction +entirely different from his route of the two days before. + +Sandy waited until he was out of sight, and then hurried back to +the bridge, where he met Alan by appointment, and the two walked +briskly on to the little gray house together. When they reached +it, the wag-at-the-wall clock was just striking nine, and Jean, +her morning work done, was "caning" the hearth with blue chalk as +a final touch of elegance to her clean kitchen. + +"Come on," said Alan. "I've a plan in my head, and we'll have to +start directly if we're going to carry it out. Let me have some +of that blue chalk, Jean; we may need it. I've got plenty of food +with me, so don't wait to put up anything." + +"I'm with you," said Jean, giving a final flourish with the blue +chalk before she clapped on her bonnet, and in another minute the +Rob Roy Clan was afoot, leaving Tam nursing his wounded paw on +the doorstep and gazing after them with pathetic eyes. + +They left their luncheon in the cave and hurried on at Alan's +command to the little mountain tarn where Angus had killed the +stag, and there the Clan gathered about him to hear his plan. + +"I've been thinking about this," Alan began, "and I'm sure of two +things. Angus must have a place where he puts the game he kills, +and he must have somebody to help him. The other man comes along +and carries it down the mountain to some point where he can ship +it to the city. I say, let's find out where that hiding-place +is." + +"What will we do with it when we find it?" asked Jean. + +"That's where the blue chalk comes in," said Alan. "We'll let him +know we've been there!" + +"You'll never be writing your name there?" asked Sandy anxiously. +"He'd be shooting us next!" + +"Oh! Sandy, you're a daft body," said Jean, and Jock added: "Mind +the Chief, you dunderhead, and keep your tongue behind your +teeth. He's none so addled as you think!" + +Sandy subsided a little sulkily, and Alan went on. + +"When Angus crossed the lake with the stag he landed right over +there by that dead pine tree, for I watched him to see, and the +place where he hid the stag can't be far from there, because he +came back so soon. We'll just take his boat and see if we can't +find it." + +"Oh!" gasped Jean, who had never been in a boat in her life, "do +you know how to make it go?" + +"I can row and I can swim," said Alan, "but I tell you if any one +goes bouncing around in the boat, it will be just as bad as being +bewitched by the water cow, you'll go to the bottom!" + +"I can row, too," said Sandy. + +Jean wished she hadn't come, but she was bound she would not show +it before the boys, so she said, "Sal! who's afraid?" and when +they found the boat, she was the first one in it. + +Angus was so sure that no one would find his boat, which was +carefully screened by the bushes, that he had not even hidden the +oars. So it was soon afloat with Jock at the tiller, Sandy on the +bottom, Jean in the prow holding to the sides of the boat, +scarcely daring to speak for fear of upsetting it, and Alan at +the oars. The lake was smooth, and they reached the opposite +shore without mishap, except that twice Alan "caught a crab" and +splashed water all over Jock, and Sandy filled both shoes as he +jumped out of the boat. They pulled it up under the shelter of +the dead pine, anchored it by a stone, and cautiously made their +way into the woods. + +They were now in a very wild section of the mountains, where it +seemed as if no one had ever been since the beginning of the +world. + +"Just hear the stillness," whispered Jean, keeping close to Jock. +There was a sort of trail leading back into the woods, which +looked as if it might have been made by wild animals going to the +lake for a drink. This they followed for some distance until it +became indistinct, and then Alan called the Clan together for +counsel. + +"We'll go just a little farther," he said, "and then, if we don't +see any sign of the place, it may be best to go back, for it is +easy to get lost in these woods. We are going east now and +luckily the sun is shining. When we do turn back, we must keep +the sun behind us and we can't help coming out somewhere on the +lake. Remember the pewit call if we lose sight of each other." + +They resumed their stealthy walk through the woods, and a few +rods farther on came to a wide open space which sloped eastward +for some distance down the mountain-side. Here they paused. + +"We're getting a good way from the boat," said Jean. + +"Yes," said Alan, "and I am just wondering whether we'd better go any +farther. We don't want to cross this open space, and I see no sign of +Angus's storehouse. I hate to give up, though, for we must be very +near it." He searched in every direction with his eyes, and suddenly +exclaimed under his breath, "Look there!" + +"Where?" breathed the Clan, rigid with excitement. + +"Do you see that pile of rocks?" said Alan, pointing into the +woods beyond the clearing. + +"Yes," said Jock, "but there are rocks all around. I don't see +that they're any different from others." + +"Maybe not," said Alan, "but I see something that looks like the +corner of a hunter's shelter sticking out behind that big +boulder, and I say, let's skirt around this open place and see." + +"Do you want us all to go?" asked Sandy, hoping the Chief would +say no. + +"You stay here," Alan answered, to his great relief, "and Jean, +you come a little farther with us. Then you and Sandy can keep +out of sight and watch. If you see a man, keep still in your +places and give the pewit call. Jock and I will go on around the +clearing and get a better look at those rocks." + +Sandy crouched down in the bracken, and two or three hundred feet +farther on Jean stopped also, while Alan and Jock cautiously +crept on toward their goal, and, by making a wide detour, +approached the rocks from the north instead of the west. As they +neared them, it was plain that Alan was right. There really was a +shelter built against an overhanging rock and almost concealed +from view by pine boughs which formed a screen before it. Little +by little the boys crept nearer and nearer, stopping every few +steps to be sure there was no sign of life about the place. At +last they were within a few feet of the rude camp. The shelter +was scarcely more than a hole under the rocks, but there was a +blackened spot where there had been a fire, a few pans were +standing about, and in one corner a pile of evergreen boughs was +covered with well-cured deer-skins. A fresh hide ready to cure +was spread out on the rocks near by. + +"This is the place," whispered Jock. "There is the skin of the +stag. Now what are you going to do?" For answer Alan slipped from +behind the rocks, crept stealthily into the camp, and on the +underside of the rock wrote in big letters with blue chalk + + ANGUS NIEL + POACHER + Your sin has found you out! + R. R. C. + +Then he crawled swiftly back out of sight and, followed by Jock, +made his way as fast as he could toward Jean's hiding-place. To +Jean the time that they were gone seemed hours long. The place +was lonely, and she was afraid, not only of their finding the man +at home in his wild lodge, but even of brownies and elves. + +A rabbit stuck his ears up over a nearby log and scuttled away +when he saw her. The leaves made a lonely sound as they rustled +over her head, and when at last she saw a black object moving +about among the trees at some distance beyond the rock-pile, it +is not surprising that she immediately gave the pewit call, loud +and clear. + +The boys heard it and instantly vanished behind some bushes. The +dark object moving among the trees seemed to hear it too and, +springing forward, came bounding toward the rocks, barking as it +came. Jean was not much less anxious when she knew for certain +that it was a dog, for a watch dog in that lonely place might be +quite as dangerous as a wolf. Moreover, she soon saw, a little +distance behind the dog, a man with a gun on his shoulder. She +saw the dog reach the camp and go sniffing about on the rocks, +and her heart almost stood still as it gave a deep howl and +started away as if it scented game. + +"He's on the trail of Alan and Jock," thought Jean, wringing her +hands. "Oh, what shall I do? The man will surely follow, for +he'll think the dog is after game." She sprang to her feet and +ran back to Sandy. + +"Come quick," she said in a low voice. "The dog smells them; we +must get into the boat and have it ready for the boys to jump +into. There is not a moment to lose." She sped past him as she +spoke, and Sandy came galloping after. + +Alan and Jock, who had seen and heard all that Jean had, were now +tearing at top speed through the woods and knew from answering +whistles that Jean and Sandy were on the way to the boat. + +The man had by this time reached the camp and was staring at the +blue chalk-marks on the rock, as if unable to believe his own +eyes. He did not stop there long. He saw at once that an enemy +had found his hiding-place, and that the dog was on his trail. +Leaping down the rocks, he started across the clearing on a run +toward the lake, his gun in his hand. Jock and Alan realized that +they could hardly reach the landing-place before the dog did, so +they changed their course and veered a little to the north, +thinking that in this way they stood more chance of concealment +and that they could signal the boat and get aboard in a less +conspicuous place. + +By this dodge the dog lost the scent of the boys and, nosing the +ground, found the trail of Sandy and Jean. Baying frightfully he +came bounding through the underbrush and arrived at the landing +just in time to see Sandy push the boat from the shore with Jean +in the bow. Furious at being cheated of his prey, the dog ran +back and forth on the shore, making mad leaps in the direction of +the boat and barking as if possessed. + +"Oh, where are the boys?" cried the distracted Jean. They +lingered in an agony of suspense, not daring to leave until they +saw that Jock and Alan were safe, and then from a little distance +up the shore came the pewit call. Sandy rose to the emergency +and, pulling frantically at the oars, succeeded in reaching the +point from which the call seemed to come. The scared faces of +Jock and Alan rose from the bracken, and in another moment they +had leaped into the boat, nearly upsetting it as they did so. +Alan seized an oar, and he and Sandy together got the boat out of +sight behind a bend in the shore. Here they hid among the bushes +on the bank until they saw the man appear at the landing-place, +scan the lake carefully, and then go back into the woods, calling +the dog to go with him. Even then they were afraid to stir for +they did not know whether he had gone back to camp or was +stalking about among the trees searching for them. + +They waited for what seemed a week but saw nothing further of the +man, and when at last they heard the report of a gun and the +barking of a dog far away down the mountain, they felt safe. He +was evidently looking in another direction for the intruders, and +at once Alan gave the word to go back to their own side of the +lake. They skirted the shores, keeping a sharp lookout all the +while, and at length reached the landing-place. The weary members +of the Clan breathed a sigh of relief as they found themselves +safe on their own ground again, arid their spirits rose. + +Jock told what Alan had written on the rock, and Alan was so much +impressed by that achievement that he took out the blue chalk and +on a rock by the tarn wrote "Here Angus Niel, gamekeeper +and poacher, shot a stag"; and on the stone where the boat had +been, he put the mystic initials "R. R. C." + +"There," said Alan, pausing to admire his handiwork, "that'll +keep him guessing, and scared too." + +"What can we do next?" + +"Take away his boat," said Jean promptly. + +"Good idea!" cried Alan. + +"Where can we hide it?" asked Jock. + +"I'm mortal hungry," said Sandy. "Couldn't we eat first?" + +"No food until this job is done," said the Chief firmly. "We'll +never have another chance when we know where the other man and +Angus both are. It's now or never!" + +"But where shall we hide it?" demanded Jock again. + +"I'll tell you," cried Jean, her eyes dancing with mischief. "We +can carry it to the burn and float it down to the cave!" + +This was a stroke of genius, no less, and every member of the +Clan looked upon Jean with respect bordering upon awe. At the +point where the lake emptied into the burn there were loose +rocks, about which the water rushed in a swift cataract, but, +below, the current flowed more gently toward the fall. It was +deep only in spots where the trout loved to hide, but it was not +a stream anywhere in its course upon which one would launch a +boat for pleasure. The rocks were so near the surface that the +weight of even one person might ground it, but afloat and empty +it might be carried clear to the rocks above the cave. The Clan +considered the plan carefully, standing upon the rocky banks. + +"How would we guide it?" asked Sandy doubtfully. + +"There's a rope on the end of the boat," said Jean promptly, "and +we could push it off with sticks if it got stuck." + +"Come on," cried Alan, and the four plotters rushed bask to the +lake and pulled the boat out of the water. Alan took the prow and +Jock took the stern, while Sandy and Jean supported it on each +side, and in this way, after many struggles, they succeeded in +carrying it to a place below the rapids where they dared launch +it. + +"I'll hold the rope," said Alan, "and you, Sandy, take an oar and +go down the other side of the stream, so you can push it off if +it gets stuck on that side." + +"How'll I get across?" asked Sandy. + +This was a poser at first, but Alan found a way. + +"Get into the boat," he said, "and we'll push it across where +there aren't any stones sticking up. You can pole it across with +your oar, and I'll keep hold of the rope." + +Sandy jumped in at once, and the boat, in spite of some swirling, +was finally near enough to the opposite bank so he could jump +out. This he did, taking the oar with him. It was an exciting +journey down stream, for the boat bumped against rocks and caught +on fallen trees, and it was a good hour before the children, +tired out but triumphant, finally dragged it out of the water +just above the falls. + +"If we had our rope, we could drag it to the edge of the cliff +and let it down in front of the cave," cried Jean in another +flash of inspiration, and Sandy instantly rushed down the rock, +made the necessary detour, and climbed the secret stair to the +cave. He then whistled, and three heads appeared over the top of +the cliff. + +"I'll throw up the rope and when you let the boat down, I'll +steady it," said Sandy. + +"Heave away," cried Alan, and after a few trials the rope came +flying up on the cliff and was soon looped around the boat. Then +the three braced their feet against the rocks and slowly lowered +the boat by the rope fastened to the prow, and by their own rope, +while Sandy steadied it below. They threw down the rope-end after +it, and a few moments. later the rapturous Clan hauled the boat +into the cave! They sat in it to eat their luncheon and were so +lost in admiration of their enterprise and their booty that they +did not start home until the level rays of the sun warned them +that it was late. + + + +XI. ANGUS NIEL AND THE CANNY CLAN + +The days that followed were days of stirring adventure to the Rob +Roy Clan, and days of continuous and surprising misery to Angus +Niel. Never in his history as gamekeeper. of Glen Cairn had he +had such experiences. The very trees in the woods seemed to be +bewitched. Wherever he went he was followed by some mysterious +power that seemed to know his every movement. If he killed any +game, the fact was advertised and the place marked by signs in +blue chalk. Not only that, but the very path of his approach to +the spot was marked by pointing arrows and some such legend as +"This way to the glen where Angus Niel killed a deer" would +decorate a neighboring rock. On other rocks appeared pertinent +questions addressed to him. "How much did you get for the stag?" +was one of them, and there were also queries as to where he found +the best market for game. He was kept so busy searching the +forest for these incriminating signs and rubbing them out, that +he could not follow his regular rounds. Even this did not avail, +for if he erased them on one day, it was but a matter of time +before the letters appeared again as fresh and blue as ever. Nor +was this all. He was haunted by a wailing voice which reached him +even in the remote fastnesses of the forest. He was sure to hear +it if he ventured into the neighborhood of the waterfall, and he +usually avoided that region as if it harbored a pestilence. + +Once late in the afternoon he shot two hares and hid them under +some rocks, intending to carry them across the lake in the +morning, but when he went for them, they had disappeared +altogether, and above the place where they had been was written +in blue chalk, "Sacred to the memory of two hares, killed and +hidden here by Angus Niel on June 12th." + +When he saw this epitaph, Angus's hair really stood on end with +fright, and on the day he found that the boat was gone, leaving +no trace, he became absolutely terror-stricken. He sought for it +behind every rock and in every likely nook about the lake, +consuming days in the quest, and was appalled on his next trip +thither to find all the incidents of his search faithfully +recorded on the rocks, each one signed with the mystic initials +R. R. C. + +It took ingenuity, persistence, and some degree of danger on the +part of the clan to accomplish these things, but one could depend +upon finding these qualities in any Campbell or McGregor, and +Sandy, having been made a blood brother, faithfully lived up to +the duties it entailed. He became an expert detective and sleuth- +hound, discovering and reporting Angus's movements each day to +the enterprising Clan and its resourceful Chief. + +At Alan's suggestion, the Clan took for its motto "We must be +canny," and canny they certainly were. They even changed their +programme from day to day, and in this way just when Angus felt +he was about to discover his tormentors and know if they were +human and not witches, they found some new method of annoyance +and he was all at sea again. + +Once they gave him a respite of nearly a week and Angus, having +erased many signs and finding no new ones, was beginning to think +his troubles were over, when suddenly arrows bearing bits of +paper inviting him to visit the fall would suddenly drop at his +feet. It had taken the Clan nearly all their spare time for the +week to make the bows and arrows, by which this wonder was +accomplished. Meanwhile they had lived like lords, feasting upon +trout and the generous store of provisions with which Alan +continued to supply the cave. They even began to see how it was +possible for Rob Roy and his men to live upon forest fare, for +the pool below the fall was a wonderful fishing-hole, and small +game was plentiful if they had cared to become poachers +themselves. + +On one red-letter day, they roasted the two hares which Angus had +killed, and cooked potatoes in the ashes. Each day was filled +with fresh adventures, and the wild out-door life agreed with +Alan so well that his thin cheeks began to fill out and glow with +healthy color and it was not long before he looked as sturdy and +strong as Jock himself. + +It was curious that what Alan gained in flesh and spirits, Angus +Niel at the same time seemed to lose. He was so worried by these +strange visitations that his round eyes took on a haunted +expression, and Sandy observed that he kept looking over his +shoulder as if he thought some one were following him, even when +he walked the village streets. + +He dared not stay away from the forest lest others should +discover the dreadful blue signs before he did, and at the same +time he was afraid to go in. He swung like a pendulum between +these two difficulties and grew daily more nervous and unhappy. +By the end of June he had lost ten pounds of flesh as well as the +money he might have made out of poaching and selling the game. By +the middle of July he was so haggard that people began to remark +on his appearance. There seemed no way out of his troubles but to +lie about them, and soon wild stories were circulated through the +village about the haunted forest and its dangers. + +Women were warned not to let the children stray into the woods +lest they be carried away by witches or water cows, and it was +also reported that a gang of poachers of a particularly blood- +thirsty character infested the region, carrying off game and +property and leaving no trace. Angus had been watching this band +of desperadoes for some time, he said, and knew there were at +least twenty of them who would stop at nothing. + +With Angus's tale of the mysterious loss of his boat, the +excitement reached a climax, and there was talk of organizing an +armed band of men from the village to protect the woods and rid +the neighborhood of the bandits. The people were surprised that +Angus himself should oppose this plan, but as he was gamekeeper +and in authority, the matter was dropped. To Angus's horror, +however, these rumors and events were all faithfully recorded on +rocks not far from his own home soon after, and he realized that +to the very doors of his own house he was pursued by the same +mysterious and vigilant power. It was then that he lost his +appetite, and if the Clan could have followed him into his home +and seen him look under his bed before he got into it at night, +their joy would have been full. + +The wild stories he told had the effect of keeping every one else +out of the forest and made the Clan more than ever free to stalk +their prey without fear of discovery. In this occupation several +exciting weeks passed by, and then there came an unhappy surprise +to the Clan, and it was not Angus Niel who sprang it upon them +either. + +One morning in late July, Alan came up the road toward the little +gray house, where he was now so much at home, looking very glum +indeed. Sandy was with him, wearing a face as solemn as a funeral +procession. Jock and Jean saw them coming and hailed them with a +shout, and Tam, who had not quite recovered from his injury, came +dashing down the brae on three legs to greet them. Even Tam's +joyful bark did not lift the shadow from their faces. + +Jean cried out from the top of the brae, "Whatever can be the +matter with you? You're looking as miserable as two hens in a +rainstorm!" + +"Trouble enough," answered Sandy, and Jean and Jock at once came +hurrying down the slope to hear the bad news. They met at the +river-side, and Sandy, who was bursting to tell it, cried out, +"What do you think? Alan's got to go home! His mother's sent for +him!" One look at Alan's melancholy face confirmed this dreadful +statement and the gloom instantly became general. + +The Clan sat down on the ground in a depressed circle to discuss +the matter and its bearing on their plans. + +"Don't you think your mother would let you stay if you should ask +her?" suggested Jock. + +"No," said Alan, with sad conviction. "She said I was to come at +once, and I'll have to start this very afternoon. I'm to drive +down to the boat and get to Glasgow by water; I'll spend the +night there and go on to London in the morning." + +"Sal, but you'll be seeing a lot of the world," said Jock. "I +wish I were going with you." + +"I wish you all were," said Alan. + +"We'll likely be having more traveling than we want," said Jean, +"when we have to give up the wee bit hoosie and go out and walk +the world." She looked up at the little gray house as she spoke, +and her eyes filled with tears. + +"It's the end of the Clan; that's what it is," said Sandy with +deepening despondency. + +"Oh, come now!" said Alan. "It's not so bad as all that, and I'm +surely coming back next summer. I know my mother'll let me, for +she'll see how much good it's done me to be here. Just look at +that," he added, baring his arm and knotting his biceps. +"Climbing around the cave and chasing after Angus Niel have made +me as tough as a knot. She won't know me when she sees me." + +"I wonder if we shall know you the next time we see you, if we +ever do," said Jean. + +"Ho!" said Alan, trying to smile gayly, "of course you will! I'll +have a sprig of the evergreen pine and give the pewit call, and +then you'll be sure." + +"What good will your coming back next summer do us?" said Jock. +"We shan't be here to see you! Our leases run out in October, and +nobody knows where we'll go after that! We've got to move out, so +the Auld Laird can have more space to raise game for Angus Niel +to kill," he finished bitterly. + +There seemed no way of brightening this sad prospect, and the +Clan sat for a few moments in mournful silence. Alan tried hard +to think of something comforting to say. + +"I'll tell you what," he exclaimed at length. "We can still be a +Clan, whether we see each other or not. We'll remember we're all +blood brothers just the same." + +"And that you are our Chief," added Jean, trying to look +cheerful. + +"Can't we go back to the cave just once more?" said Sandy. + +"I've got to be at the bridge at one o'clock," said Alan. "I've +said good-bye to Eppie, and she is packing my things, and putting +up a lunch, so I don't have to do anything but step into the +carriage when I get there. What time is it now?" + +Jean flew up the slope to the house and called back from the +door, "It's ten o'clock." + +"Come on, then, my merry men!" cried Alan, and the four started +off at a brisk trot, looking anything but merry as they went. + +"We shan't want to come here any more," said Jock, when they +reached the cave. "So we may as well take everything away." + +"Oh," said Alan, "something might happen to keep you in the +Glen Easig. You never can tell. You'd better take back the pots +and pans, but leave the wood, and then if we are here next +summer, it will be all ready for cooking a jolly old mess of +trout." + +"Whatever shall we do with the boat?" asked Jean. This was a +conundrum, but the Chief, as usual, was equal to the occasion. + +"There's only one thing we can do," he said. "It will just dry up +and fall to pieces up here; we'll let it down over the rock by +the ropes and. leave it in the pool. Then when Angus finds it, +he'll be perfectly sure he was bewitched and be more afraid of +the falls than ever!" + +They worked hurriedly, for the time was short, and in another +hour the boat was floating in the fishing-pool, securely tied to +a pine tree on the bank. They packed pots and pans in the basket +and lowered it over the rock by the rope, and when everything was +done, Alan took the blue chalk and drew a sprig of pine on the +wall of the cave with the initials R. R. C. beside it. The four +children then scrambled down the secret stairway, feeling as if +they had said good-bye forever to a dear friend. When they +reached the little gray house, they left the basket in the +kitchen, and the entire Clan walked with Alan back to the bridge, +where they found the carriage waiting. + +Alan made short work of his good-byes. He shook hands all round +and sprang quickly into the carriage, and as it rattled away with +him down the road, he stood up, waving his bonnet with the spray +of evergreen pine in it and whistling the pewit call. + +"Dagon't," said Sandy, when the carriage passed out of sight +around a bend in the road. "Dagon't, we'll never find another +like the Chief." If Jean and Jock had felt able to say anything, +they would have echoed the statement. As it was, Sandy drew his +kilmarnock bonnet over his eyes, thrust his hands into his +pockets, and started dejectedly toward his own house, leaving +Jean and Jock, equally miserable, to return alone to the wee bit +hoosie on the brae. + + + +XII. NEWS + +The rest of the week seemed at least a month long to the lonely +twins. Sandy came to see them, to be sure, but with the passing +of the Chief, the flavor seemed gone from the play, and the Clan +made no further expeditions after Angus Niel. + +"He can just kill all the game he wants to," said Jean. "It's +the worse for the Auld Laird, I doubt, but who cares for that, so +long as he leaves Tam alone and keeps away from here? It's +nothing to me." + +Their father had been so taken up with his work and with turning +over in his mind plans for the future, when they should be +"walking the world," that he paid little attention to their +punishment of Angus Niel, about which he knew little and cared +less. He was absorbed in planning the best mar ket for his sheep +and in getting as much from his garden as he could, hoping to +sell what he was unable to use himself, when the time came to +leave. His usually cheerful face had grown more and more troubled +as the summer wore on, and it was seldom now that his bagpipes +woke the mountain echoes, and whenever he did while away a rainy +evening with music, the melodies were as wild and mournful as his +own sad thoughts. + +Angus Niel's barometer now rose again. Finding himself no longer +pursued by his unseen foes, his waning self-confidence returned, +and it was only a week or two after Alan's departure that +wonderful stories began to go about the village concerning his +prowess in ridding the woods of thieves and marauders single- +handed. + +"I've even found my boat," he announced one evening to a group of +men lounging about the village store, "and it was no human hands +that put it where I found it either! It was below the falls, if +you'll believe me, safe and sound and tight as ever. Any man that +is easily scared would better not be walking the woods in that +direction, I'm telling you, or likely he'd be whisked away by the +little people and shut up in some cave in the hills. I felt the +drawing myself once, but I knew how to manage. I was just gey +firm with them, and they knew I wasna fearful and let me go. It's +none so easy being a gamekeeper. It takes a bold man, and a canny +one, and well the poacher gang knew that. They're gone and good +riddance. It's taken me all summer to bring it about." + +"Oh," murmured Jock to Jean, when this was repeated to them by +Sandy the following Sabbath, "wouldn't Alan like to hear that?" +It was on that very Sabbath, too, that they learned the Dominie +had recovered and that school was to reopen on the following day. +This was good news to the Twins, for like all Scotch children +they longed for an education, and the next morning, bright and +early, they were on the road to the village, carrying some scones +and hard-boiled eggs for their luncheon, in a little tin pail. + +The days passed swiftly after that, for, with the house to care +for, lessons to get, and the walk of five miles to school and +back, there was little time for moping or even dreading the day +when they must leave their highland home. + +It was late August when they came rushing home one afternoon, +bursting with a great piece of news, which they had learned in +the village. Never had they covered the five miles of the +homeward journey more quickly, but when they reached the little +gray house, their father had not yet returned from the pastures, +though it was after his time. The two children ran back of the +house to the cow byre, and there in the distance they saw him +coming across the barren moor. He was walking slowly, with his +head bent as though he were tired and discouraged, and Tam, +limping along beside him, looked discouraged too. The Twins gave +a wild whoop and raced across the moor to meet them. Jock got +there first, but was too out of breath to speak for an instant. + +"Dear, dear! What can the matter be?" said their father, looking +from one excited face to the other. + +"Oh, Father," gasped Jean, finding her tongue first, "you never +can guess, so I'll tell you. The Auld Laird's dead." + +The Shepherd stood still in his tracks, too stunned for words. + +"Aye!" cried Jock, wishing to share in the glory of such an +exciting revelation. "He's as dead as a salt herring." + +"Oh, Father!" cried Jean, "aren't you glad? Now we won't have to +leave the wee bit hoosie and the Glen." + +"I'm none so sure of that," said the Shepherd slowly, when he had +recovered from the first shock of surprise. "The new Laird may be +worse than the old. Be that as it may, I'm not one to rejoice at +the death of any man. Death is a solemn thing, my dawtie, but the +Lord's will be done, and I'm not pretending to mourn." + +"We went to the village," cried Jean, "to get a bit of meat for +the pot, and there was a whole crowd of people around the post- +office door. 'T was the post-master gave us the news, and Mr. +Craigie and Angus Niel have put weeds on their hats and look as +mournful as Tam when he's scolded. We saw them out of the school- +house window not two hours gone." + +"They have reason to mourn," said the Shepherd grimly, "not for +the Auld Laird's death only, but for their own lives as well. +Aye, that's a subject for grief." He shook his head dubiously, +and, seeming to feel it was an occasion for a moral lesson, he +added, "'Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end +of that man is peace.'" + +"What has that to do with the Auld Laird?" asked Jock, much +mystified. + +"Nothing at all, maybe," answered the Shepherd, "but it's a wise +word to remember against our own time." + +"I wish Angus Niel would remember it," exclaimed Jean. + +"And Mr. Craigie no less," added Jock. + +"Well, well," said the Shepherd, "heard ye anything more in the +village?" + +"Aye, that we did," said Jean, who loved to prolong the +excitement of news. + +"Let me tell that," said Jock. "You told about the Auld Laird. +Well, then, Father, there's all kinds of tales about the new +Laird. It's said he's a wee bit of a laddie, not more than four +years old, and not the son of the Auld Laird at all, but a cousin +or something. It's said he's weak and sickly-like and not long +for this world." + +"Sandy's mother was in the village and walked with us to the +bridge," interrupted Jean, "and she heard that the heir is a +young man living in Edinburgh, and not even known to the Auld +Laird, who had no near kin. She had it from the minister's wife, +so it must be true." + +"Didn't Mr. Craigie say anything? He ought to know more about it +than any one. He's the Auld Laird's factor to carry out his will +while he was living. It's likely he'd know more than any other +about his will, now he's dead," said the Shepherd. + +"Mrs. Crumpet says he goes about with his mouth shut up as tight +as an egg, as though he knew a great deal more than other folk, +being so intimate-like with the Laird," said Jean. + +"Aye!" added Jock, "but she said she believed there was a muckle +he did not know at all, and he was keeping his mouth shut to make +folks think he knew but wasna telling." + +Jean now took up the tale. "Mrs. Crumpet had all the news in +town," she said, "and she told us that Angus Niel said he hoped +the new Laird was fond of the hunting and would appreciate his +work in preserving the game and driving poachers from the forests +of Glen Cairn. He said he had done the work of ten men, and it +was well that people should know it and be able to tell the new +Laird, when he comes into his own!" + +Even the Shepherd couldn't help smiling at that, and as for Jean +and Jock, they shouted with laughter. In spite of themselves, the +children and their father felt such relief from anxiety that they +walked back to the little gray house with lighter hearts than +they had felt for some time. Whoever the new Laird might be, it +would take time to settle the estate and find out the will of its +new owner, and meanwhile they could live on in their old home. +Beyond that, they could even hope that they might not have to go +at all. + +That night Jean cooked the first of their early potatoes from the +garden for supper and a bit of ham to eat with them, by way of +celebrating their reprieve, and after supper the Shepherd got out +his bagpipes and played "The Blue Bells of Scotland" until the +rafters rang again. Jean stepped busily about the kitchen in tune +to the music, humming the words to herself. + + "Oh where, tell me where is your Highland laddie gone? + He's gone with streaming banners where noble deeds are done, + And it's oh! in my heart, I wish him safe at home." + +And she thought of Alan as she sang. Afterward, when Jock and +Jean were safely stowed away for the night, the Shepherd went +over and brought from the table in the room his well-worn copy of +Robert Burns's "Poems," and the last view Jean had of him before +she went to sleep, he was reading "The Cotter's Saturday Night" +aloud to himself by the light of a flickering candle. + + + +XIII. THE NEW LAIRD + +It was Friday when news of the Auld Laird's death reached the +village, and on the following Sabbath there was not an empty seat +in the kirk, for every one was anxious to hear the latest gossip +about the event which meant so much to every one in the region. +There was no newspaper in the village, and the news of the week +was passed about by word of mouth in the kirkyard after service, +or on week days was retailed over the counter at the village post- +office, which was post-office and general store in one. + +The Campbells were early in their pew, and the Twins watched the +other worshipers as they came slowly up the aisle and took their +places before time for the service to begin. Sandy winked at them +most indecorously across the church, but his mother poked him to +remind him of his duty, and he sent no more silent messages to +the other members of the Clan. + +There was an air of expectation, which seemed to affect every one +in the kirk. Even the minister looked as if he had something +special on his mind, and as for Mr. Craigie, he was as solemnly +important, Sandy said afterwards, "as though he were the corpse +himself," while Angus Niel acted like nothing less than the chief +mourner. + +In the kirkyard he let it be known that he was entirely familiar +with the details of the Auld Laird's funeral, which had occurred +in London the day before, though how the particulars reached him +in so short a time must forever remain a mystery. + +It was Mr. Craigie, however, who gave out the important news +which every one had felt must becoming. On the steps after +service he said to Mr. Crumpet, "It's likely, Andrew, that you +may have more time about your lease. I've had news that the new +Laird is coming soon to the castle with his lawyers and some +other people to look over the estate and take possession. Eppie +McLean is to get ready for quite a party of the gentry." + +Mrs. Crumpet was standing near her husband, and she was a bold +woman who would have asked a question of the Auld Laird himself, +if she had had occasion. "Then it's the sickly bit laddie who's +the heir?" she said, "and not the Edinburgh man?" + +Mr. Craigie looked majestic and waved her aside, merely saying, +as he went down the steps, "It isna an Edinburgh body," but +giving no hint as to whether it was man, woman, or child. The +people who had gathered about him thinking to hear something +definite looked resentfully at his back as he walked away, and +Mrs. Crumpet openly expressed her opinion that he knew nothing +more about it himself. "If he did, he couldn't help letting it +dribble out by degrees, like a leaky kirn, being too stingy to +tell it out free, like any other body," she said. + +Mrs. Crumpet was a woman of rare penetration. Even Sandy didn't +often get ahead of his mother. + +For another week the village waited in suspense for further news, +and then on Saturday the report spread like wildfire through the +town that the new Laird with his party had arrived at the castle +the night before. + +It was Sandy who brought the news to the little gray house. "And +they say there were three carriage-loads of them and they never +got to Glen Cairn until dark," he cried; "and the tale is that +the castle ovens have never been cool since the word came a week +ago! Mother says Eppie McLean has been laying in provisions as if +she looked for seven lean years like Joseph in Egypt." + +"Losh!" interrupted Jock, "I wish Alan was here. Wouldn't we get +some of those good things for the cave, though." + +"But that isn't all the news," cried Sandy, who had come three +miles to tell it and was not going to let it burst from him too +suddenly. "There's more." + +"What is it, Sandy?" cried Jean, dancing with impatience. "Hurry, +lad; let out what's bottled up in you or you'll blow the cork!" + +"Well," exploded Sandy, "you'll get some of the good things +without Alan, I'm telling you, for there's to be a grand feast at +the castle, and everybody is asked to come! There's a sign up in +the village, and it's to be Monday at five o'clock. They say +Eppie McLean has fowls waiting by the dozen and a barrel of +tatties ready for the pot. Losh! I don't see how the new Laird +can stay weakly with so much to fill him up." + +"Sal!" cried Jean, "if he's such a wee laddie as they say, it's +likely his mother will be the one to say what's to be done in +Glen Cairn, and it's not likely she'll be wanting to go rampaging +over the country shooting game like the Auld Laird." + +"Ye can never tell," said Sandy, with a worldly air. "Some say +ladies is worse than men." + +"Never believe that," said Jean, promptly, and then she added a +little wistfully, "especially if they are mothers." + +At church the next day the congregation was in such a state of +excitement it was with the greatest difficulty that the proper +Sabbath decorum was observed. Sandy Crumpet brazenly looked over +his shoulder every time any one passed up the aisle, thinking +that perhaps the new Laird and his mother might come in at any +moment, and even the grown people looked sidewise, but no new +faces appeared and fear was expressed afterwards that the mother +of the heir was of the Established Church. Mrs. Crumpet said she +had always heard that among the gentry the women were fiercer in +their religion than the men. The Shepherd remembered the Laird of +Kinross, but said nothing. + +On the way home from church Jean and Jock noticed that smoke was +issuing from all the castle chimneys. It was now early autumn, +and, as Jean said, the castle must be damp from, standing so long +empty, and they had the right to warm it up for the wee Laird, +him being so sickly. + +The suspense of the long weeks of summer had now become acute. If +the Auld Laird's wish to turn the tenants out of their holdings +to make Glen Cairn into a large game preserve was to be carried +out, the time for doing it was near, and the people looked +forward to the supper at the castle with both hope and dread. + +Every one was to be there, and on Monday a wonderful amount of +preparation was going forward in every cottage and farmhouse on +the estate. Jean had her father's blacks on the line and +thoroughly brushed early in the morning, and the Sabbath clothes +for all three of them laid out on the chairs in "the room" by +noon. At four o'clock they were on their way to the castle. Jock +had wanted to start at three, but Jean was firm. + +"It isna genteel to be going so early," she said. "T'will look +greedy, and you'll not get fed the sooner." + +Any one would have said Jean looked pretty that day, for she was +not wearing her "Saturday face," and the little curls had crept +around her head unbeknownst and were blowing in bright tendrils +about her forehead under the edge of her bonnet with its sprig of +pine. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright with health and +excitement, and Robert Campbell, looking with pride at his sturdy +son and daughter, said to himself, "It's a sonsie lassie and braw +lad. I wish their mother could see them." + +They walked down the river road, where the autumn colors were +beginning to appear, and at the bridge met the Crumpet family all +dressed in their best, also on their way to the castle. Sandy had +scrubbed himself till his face was shining like a glass bottle, +and the sprig of pine waved proudly from his bonnet, too. At +every branch road they were joined by others, and when they +neared the castle gates there was already quite a large group of +people from the village as well. Every one was in a state of +tense excitement, for the fate of all hung in the balance. Since +the tenure of their homes was at the mercy of the new Laird, his +ideas and disposition were of vital importance in their lives, +and they were keen to see him and find out for themselves what +manner of person he might be. Mr. Crumpet was looking very glum. +He took a morose view of life at best, and the present +circumstances certainly warranted apprehension. + +"If it's a wee bit of a laddie, as we are led to expect," he said +to the Shepherd, "he'll have no judgment of his own, and be +dependent on them as has him in charge. Mr. Craigie will not be +loosening his hold, and with only a weak woman and a sickly boy +to deal with, he'll wind 'em around his finger like a wisp o' +wool. It's my opinion we'll have Mr. Craigie to deal with more +than ever." + +"Well," said Mrs. Crumpet philosophically, "and if we jump at all +'t will be but from the fire back to the frying-pan again, I'm +thinking." + +Various other opinions were expressed by one and another as the +tenants of Glen Cairn followed the wide drive which led to the +castle doors. Most of them had never before been inside the walls +of the park, and they looked about them with interest at the +unkempt and overgrown drive and at the bracken and heather +spreading even over the lawns. It was evident that the place had +been left to take care of itself for many years. + +It was a warm day in late September, and though there was a touch +of red in the ivy which draped the gray castle walls, the air was +mellow with the haze of autumn and musical with the buzzing of +bees. + +Mr. Craigie, looking more like a pair of tongs than ever, stood +on the terrace with the minister and his wife, while Angus Niel, +swelling with importance, ranged round the outskirts of the crowd +as they approached the castle, gradually herding them toward the +entrance. When they were all gathered in front of the terrace, +the minister came forward to the steps and lifted his hand. A +hush instantly fell upon the waiting people, and the minister +spoke. + +"Her ladyship has asked me to say to you that she and the new +Laird will meet you here," he said, "and afterward conduct you to +the banqueting-hall, where supper will be served. It is their +desire to know you all personally, and I will be here to present +you as you come up the steps." + +There was a surprised look on every face as the minister finished +speaking. What manner of landlord could this be, who made a point +of knowing his tenants as men and women the moment he came to the +estate? It was a breathless moment when at last the great castle +doors swung open, revealing a group of people standing in the +entrance. There was an instant's pause, and then a tall strong- +looking woman stepped forward upon the terrace, with her hand +resting lightly on the shoulder of a sturdy black-haired boy +nearly as tall as herself. The boy was dressed in kilts, with the +Campbell plaid flung over his shoulder and a spray of evergreen +pine nodding gayly from his Glengarry bonnet. + +"Michty me! It's Alan!" exclaimed Jock, so stunned by surprise +that his knees nearly gave way under him, while Jean, her eyes +shining like stars, clutched her father's hand, too stunned to +realize at first that Alan and the new Laird of Glen Cairn were +one and the same person. In fact, nobody realized it at once, for +many of the tenants had come to know and like Alan during the +summer, simply as "the boy who was staying with Eppie McLean." + +They were still gazing at the castle door and wondering why the +"puny wee laddie, who was not long for this world" did not +appear, when the gracious lady, who still stood with her hand +resting proudly on Alan's shoulder, began to speak. + +"Many of you already know the new Laird of Glen Cairn as Alan +McCrae," she said, smiling kindly down into their blank upturned +faces." He has been among you all summer and has learned to love +our Highland country without dreaming that he himself would one +day inherit this beautiful estate. He is next of kin to the Auld +Laird, though not a near relative, and had no idea that I had any +purpose beyond the improvement of his health in sending him here +for the summer. I knew that which he did not, that he was likely +soon to be called to take the Auld Laird's place here, and I +wanted him to know you first, not as tenants, but as friends +merely. He has come to love this region for its own sake, and +comes among you like a true Scotchman, meaning to make this his +home and the interests of this community his own interests. He is +not yet of age, as you see, but his purposes and plans are +clearly formed, and I will leave him to explain them to you +himself." + +She stopped speaking, and the people, overwhelmed with surprise +and joy, burst into a hearty and prolonged cheer, as Alan stepped +forward to make his speech. He was only a boy, and a very much +embarrassed one at that, but he knew what he wanted to say and he +got to the point at once. + +"I just want you to know," he said, "that nobody's going to be +turned out if he doesn't want to be. I know all about the lease, +and that it's going to run out this fall, but any one who wants +to stay on the land and improve it is going to have the chance to +do it. My mother knows a lot about such things, and we're going +to collect the rents ourselves, and we think, maybe, when I'm of +age, there'll be some way by which people who really want to use +the land may own it instead of being obliged to rent. Mother says +they are beginning to do it in Ireland, and in England too in +some places. + +"I've found out that people are more important than rabbits and +deer, and they are going to have first chance at the land of Glen +Cairn as long as I'm Laird." This was greeted with such a roar of +cheers that for a moment it was quite impossible for Alan to +proceed. He smiled bashfully at his mother and then held up his +hand for silence. + +"I just want to say, too," he went on, biting his lips to keep +from laughing, "that after this there won't be any gamekeeper on +Glen Cairn. If the rabbits spoil your crops you're welcome to +catch them if you can! I've ranged these woods myself all summer, +and I have found out that gamekeepers are no safeguard against +poachers." A gasp of astonishment greeted this statement, and +Angus Niel was observed to turn ashy pale. + +"In fact, I know that sometimes gamekeepers turn poachers +themselves and make money selling what they have killed," he went +on. Here Angus Niel, looking suddenly deflated, like a burst +balloon, began quietly to slink out of sight, and Alan, brimful +of mischief, raised his voice so it would be sure to reach him +and said, "I've seen it done myself, and if Angus Niel wants to +know any more about that gang of twenty blood-thirsty villains +which has scared the life out of him all summer, he can come to +me and I'll tell him. I'm the Chief of that gang, and there are +three others just like me, and that's all!" He winked rapturously +at the three other members of the Clan, who were gazing up at him +in a stupor of astonishment, and fired his last shot at the +fleeing Angus, while the audience, catching his meaning, burst +into howls of derisive laughter. + +"Don't hurry, Angus," he called. "I want to tell you about your +boat and about the water witch that haunted you. I'm the water +witch too!" But Angus was already out of hearing and scuttling as +fast as his trembling legs could carry him to get out of sight, +as well. When the roars of laughter had subsided, Alan said, with +a boyish grin, "It's too bad he couldn't stay to supper. And now +come up, everybody, and meet my mother." + +It was then that the Shepherd of Glen Easig astonished himself +and every one else by shouting at the top of his lungs, "Three +cheers for the young Laird!" and when they had been given with +such energy that the hills rang with the echoes, he called for +three more for her ladyship, and Alan waved his cap in +acknowledgment for them both. + +Then the people, surprised out of their usual Scotch reserve by +laughter and by the joy of good news, came swarming up the steps +and were introduced to Alan's mother by Alan himself when he knew +them, and by the minister when he did not. + +The Shepherd, with the bashful Clan in his wake, came last of +all, and the Twins heard him say to her ladyship, "God bless the +laddie! It was a rare day for the Glen when he fell into the burn +and came to dry himself by our fireside." + +"It was a rare day for me, too, Cousin Campbell," said Alan, and +then; catching sight of Sandy and the Twins hanging back behind +their father, what did he do but pucker up his lips and whistle +the pewit call? The Clan was too overcome then even to attempt a +pucker, and Alan, springing forward, tried to grasp three hands +at once and introduced them to his mother as his Rob Roy Clan. + +The Twins and Sandy were not a bit like the bold buccaneers of +the cave when the great lady of Glen Cairn smiled on them kindly. + +"I told you I'd wear the sprig of evergreen pine and whistle the +call of the Clan the next time you saw me," cried Alan, as they +fell in behind the others, who were now entering the banquet- +hall. "Why didn't you answer?" + +"Oh, but," said Jean, a little sadly and blushing like a poppy, +"we never thought you'd be coming back so grand like. You'll +never be playing with the Clan any more in Glen Easig, surely, +now that you 're a great Laird!" + +"And why not, I'd like to know?" cried the great Laird, looking +hurt. "I'm still Alan McRae, Chief of the Clan, the same as +before, and as true to my friends as Rob Roy himself was before +me. We'll have many a good day in the woods yet before snow +flies; and listen, I've a plan in my head!" + +"There speaks the Chief," cried Jock, forgetting to be afraid of +him. "He was ever having plans in his head. Out with it, man." + +"It's this," said Alan, "I'm going to have a tutor here at the +castle, and you're all to have your lessons here with me, and no +end of larks!" Here Sandy, who had so far merely gazed at his +Chief with speechless devotion, suddenly burst into words. + +"Aye, Chief," he cried, "that was a true word you spoke about no +gamekeeper being needed in Glen Cairn. I'm none so keen for the +learning, but if there should be poachers hanging about, they'll +have Sandy Crumpet to deal with; let them take warning of that!" + +Alan laughed and clapped Sandy on the back. "I'd rather have you +than forty Angus Niels," he said, and then they were swept along, +without a chance for further words, into the great hall, where +they found long tables spread and Eppie McLean with a dozen +helpers bringing in such stores of food that all Sandy had said +about the preparations at the castle was justified at a glance. + +Most of the people had already found places at the tables when +the young Laird and his mother, followed by the minister and his +wife and the castle guests, cams into the hall. The Twins and +Sandy hung back behind all the other guests, but Alan found +places for them opposite his own, and then he handed his mother +to the seat of honor at the head of the table. The minister and +the guests from the city ranged themselves on either side, and +every one stood with bowed head while the minister asked a +blessing upon the food, upon the new Laird and his mother, and +upon all the people of Glen Cairn. + +There was a great scraping of chairs, and then every one sat down +and fell upon the good things like an army of locusts upon a +harvest field. The great hall, so long silent, echoed with happy +voices and the clatter, of knives and forks, and Jean, looking +across the table at the new Laird, in all his glory, wondered if +it could be possible that it was the very Alan whom she had +shaken when Angus shot the stag, or who had helped her set the +table in the kitchen of the little gray house, while his wet +clothes were drying by the cottage fire. She ate her supper like +one in a dream, and though she kept a watchful eye on Jock's +table manners and warned Sandy's elbows off the table several +times in her own efficient way, she could scarcely believe such +wonderful things were really happening to her. + +At last the wonderful day drew to a close, and the people of Glen +Cairn, happier than they had been in a long time, said goodbye to +the gracious lady of the castle and to the already beloved young +Laird, and started home in the deepening twilight of the autumn +evening. + +The Clan, lingering behind their parents, looked back at the +group on the castle terrace before the trees hid them from sight, +and Jock sent the pewit call shrilling through the dusk. It was +answered instantly from the terrace. + +"He is just like Prince Charlie, I'm thinking," said Sandy, and +Jock, to ease his feelings, whistled "Charlie is my darling" all +the way to the gate of the park. + +The evening star was shining brightly over the dark outline of +old Ben Vane as the Campbells reached the little gray house on +the brae, now safely their home forever, and Tam came bounding +down the path to meet them. Jean kissed her hand to the star and +murmured to herself, + + "Star light, star bright, + I have the wish I wished to-night." + + + +GLOSSARY + +Auld, old. + +Aye (pronounced i), yes. + +Aye (pronounced a), ever, always. + +Bailie, an officer of the law. + +Bairn, a child. + +Ben. See But and ben. + +Besom, a broom. + +Bide, stay. + +Bittock, a little bit. + +Blatherskite, a babbling person, a good-for-nothing. + +Blethering, talking nonsense. + +Bonny, pretty, beautiful, charming. + +Bracken, brake, a species of tall fern. + +Brae (pronounced bray), a hillside. + +Braw, fine, handsome. + +Burn, a brook. + +But and ben, outside and in. + +But the house means out of the house. But is also applied to the +kitchen; going but is going from the best room to the kitchen, +and going ben is going into the best room. + +Byre, a cow-shed. + +Canny, shrewd. + +Chap, a knock. + + +Daft, silly, foolish. + +Dandering, wandering. + +Dawtie, darling, pet. + +Dinna, do not. + +Dod, an exclamation. + +Doubt, suspect. + +Dyke, a low fence or wall of turf or stone. + + +Fash, disturb. + +Fine, finely, well. + +Gey, very. + +Gin (g as in give), if. + +Girdle, a griddle. + +Glengarry bonnet, a small cap without visor. + +Greet, weep. + +Guddling, catching fish with the hands. + +Havers (a as in hay), nonsense (an exclamation). + + +Isna, is not. + +Keek, a peep. + +Ken, know. + +Kilmarnock bonnet, a tam-o'-shanter. + +Kirk, church. + +Biro, a churn. + +Kist, a chest. + + +Laird, a lord, a landed proprietor. + +Laverock, the lark. + +Limmer, a mischievous person. + +Losh, an exclamation. + +Loup, to leap. + +Lug, ear. + + +Mealy pudding, a Scotch dish made of oatmeal and suet, in form +something like a sausage. + +Michty (pronounced michty, with the gutteral ch as in the German +word ich), mighty, large, powerful. + +Michty me, an exclamation. + + +Na, no, not. + + +Pawky, sly. + +Pewit, the lapwing, a species of plover. + +Plaidie (pronounced pladie), diminutive of plaid. Each clan had +its own especial pattern which was worn by all members. + + +Redding up, putting in order. + + +Sal, an exclamation. + +Scone, a flat cake, unsweetened, baked on a griddle. + +Skirl, a shrill sound, especially that characteristic of the +bagpipes. + +Slippit awa', slipped away, died. + +Sousie (both s's as in so), agreeable, attractive, comely, +pleasant. + +Spier (pronounced spear), ask. + +Sync, afterward, since. + + +Tarn, a small mountain lake. + +Tatties, potatoes. + +Tid, a pet name for a child. + +Tirley-wirley, a disturbance. + + +Wasna, was not. + +Wee bit hoosie, little house. + +Whaup, the curlew, a large bird of the Sandpiper Family. + +Wifie, an endearing term for a woman. + + +SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS + +This story can be read without much preparation by any fifth or +sixth grade pupils. In the fifth grade it may be well to have the +children read the story first in a study period in order to work +out the pronunciation of the more difficult words and to get +sufficient command of the Scotch dialect, which, however, is not +used to so great an extent that it will be difficult for American +children to understand. The teacher should explain the use of the +glossary in this connection. In the sixth grade the children will +usually be able to read the story at sight except so far as +reference to the glossary is necessary to the understanding of +Scottish words and phrases. + +As in all the Twins readers, the possibilities in this story for +dramatization will be immediately apparent. The numerous outdoor +adventures, the discovery of the cave, and the fishing will +probably be the scenes that will make the most immediate appeal +to boys who are beginning to show the Boy Scout spirit; and other +phases of outdoor life, no less than the touches of housework, +will appeal to members of the Girl Scout and the Girls' Camp Fire +organization. The illustrations in the book show hints for simple +costuming which may be followed when desired. + +Mrs. Perkins's illustrations can be used in other ways also. +Children will enjoy sketching many of them, since their simple +style makes them especially available in this way. An excellent +oral exercise would be for the children after they have read the +story to take turns in telling it from the illustrations; and a +good composition exercise would be for each pupil to select the +illustration that he would like to write upon, to make a copy of +it, and then to tell its story in his own way. + +During the reading, the teacher should tell the children +something about Scotland, geographically and historically. A file +of the National Geographic Magazine, which is accessible in most +public libraries, will be found to contain many illustrated +articles which will be invaluable in this connection. Teachers +should refer also to Tomlinson's "Young Americans in the British +Isles," Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Penelope's Progress," the volumes +devoted to Scotland in Longfellow's series, "Poems of Places," +and to Bradley's "The Gateway of Scotland." Other references are +Hunnewell's "Lands of Scott" and Olcott's "The Country of Sir +Walter Scott." (Consult the indexes for references to Rob Roy, +The Lady of the Lake, etc. Also of course Scott's novels and +poems and Burns's poems contain much material that can be drawn +upon.) Particularly to be recommended are the selections +published in the Riverside Literature Series and in Webster and +Coe's "Tales and Verse from Sir Walter Scott." + +Just at the present time when the tercentenary of the landing at +Plymouth occupies all our attention, it is particularly timely to +recall the potent influences of the Scottish people upon the +Puritans in old England and the Pilgrims who founded New England. +Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather" and Dickens's "Child's History +of England," also Tappan's "England's Story" will give an account +of how the Scotch rose in revolt against kings and prelates, and +how they were the first nation in Europe to establish in their +country the underlying principles of democracy. The Scottish +systems of land tenure--which may be said to be the theme of The +Scotch Twins--are discussed in Beaton's "Highlands of Scotland." +Of particular bearing is his comment upon conditions resulting +from the withdrawal of soil for purposes of sport, the poaching +that followed, etc. + +The spirit of Scottish history is epitomized in Burns's poem, "A +Man's a Man for a' That," and the ingenious teacher will need no +further prompting as to the ways in which this poem and the +movement for which it stands are related to the history of our +own country. A further debt to Scotland lies in the character of +the Scotch immigrants to the United States and their descendants; +Griffis's "Bonnie Scotland and What We Owe Her" will show how to +apply this suggestion and others which will come to mind from +these paragraphs. + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Scotch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins + diff --git a/old/sctwn10.zip b/old/sctwn10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..20c1ec2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sctwn10.zip diff --git a/old/sctwn11.txt b/old/sctwn11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71fb68f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sctwn11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4096 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Scotch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins +#6 in our series by Lucy Fitch Perkins + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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Grades V-VI. + +Each volume is illustrated by the author + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO + +COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY LUCY PITCH PERKINS + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE ON THE BRAE + +II. THE RABBIT AND THE GAMEKEEPER + +III. THE SABBATH + +IV. THE NEW BOY + +V. EVENING IN THE WEE BIT HOOSIE + +VI. TWO DISCOVERIES + +VII. THE CLAN + +VIII. THE POACHERS + +IX. A RAINY DAY + +X. ON THE TRAIL + +XI. ANGUS NIEL AND THE CANNY CLAN + +XII. NEWS + +XIII. THE NEW LAIRD + +GLOSSARY + +SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS + + + + +THE SCOTCH TWINS + +I. THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE ON THE BRAE + + +If you had peeped in at the window of a little gray house on a +heathery hillside in the Highlands of Scotland one Saturday +morning in May some years ago, you might have seen Jean Campbell +"redding up" her kitchen. It was a sight best seen from a safe +distance, for, though Jean was only twelve years old, she was a +fierce little housekeeper every day in the week, and on Saturday, +when she was getting ready for the Sabbath, it was a bold person +indeed who would venture to put himself in the path of her broom. +To be sure, there was no one in the family to take such a risk +except her twin brother Jock, her father, Robin Campbell, the +Shepherd of Glen Easig, and True Tammas, the dog, for the Twins' +mother had "slippit awa'" when they were only ten years old, +leaving Jean to take a woman's care of her father and brother and +the little gray house on the brae. + +On this May morning Jean woke up at five o'clock and peeped out +of the closet bed in which she slept to take a look at the day. +The sun had already risen over the rocky crest of gray old Ben +Vane, the mountain back of the house, and was pouring a stream of +golden sunlight through the eastern windows of the kitchen. The +kettle was singing over the fire in the open fireplace, a pan of +skimmed milk for the calf was warming by the hearth, and her +father was just going out, with the pail on his arm, to milk the +cow. She looked across the room at the bed in the corner by the +fireplace to see if Jock were still asleep. All she could see of +him was a shock of sandy hair, two eyes tight shut, and a +freckled nose half buried in the bed-clothes. + +"Wake up, you lazy laddie," she called out to him, "or when I get +my clothes on I'll waken you with a wet cloth! Here's the sun +looking in at the windows to shame you, and Father already gone +to the milking." + +Jock opened one sleepy blue eye. + +"Leave us alone, now, Jeanie," he wheedled. "I was just having a +sonsie wee bit of a dream. Let me finish, and syne I'll tell you +all about it." + +"Indeed, and you'll do nothing of the kind" retorted Jean, with +spirit. "Up with you, mannie, or I'll be dressed before you, and +I ken very well you'd not like to be beaten by a lassie, and her +your own sister, too." + +Jock cuddled down farther into the blankets without answering, and +Jean began putting on her clothes. It seemed but a moment before she +slid to the floor, rolled her sleeves high above a pair of sturdy +elbows, and went to finish her toilet at the basin. There she washed +her face and combed her hair, while Jock, cautiously opening one eye +again, observed her from his safe retreat. He watched her part her +hair, wet it, plaster it severely back from her brow, and tie it +firmly in place with a piece of black ribbon. Jock could read Jean's +face like print, and in this stern toilet he foresaw a day of +unrelenting house-cleaning. + +"Aye," he said to himself bitterly, "she's putting on her +Saturday face. There's trouble brewing, I doubt! It'll be Jock +this and Jock that both but and ben all day long, and whatever is +the use of all this tirley-wirly I can't see, when on Monday the +house will look as if it had never seen the sight of a besom! +I'll just bide where I am." He closed his eyes and pretended to +be asleep. + +It is true that Jean's Saturday face had such a housekeepery +pucker between the eyes and such a severe arrangement of the +front hair that any one who did not peep behind the black ribbon +might have thought her a very stern young person indeed, but +behind the black ribbon Jean's true character stood revealed! +However prim and smooth she might make it look in front, where +the cracked glass enabled her to keep an eye on it, behind her +back, where she couldn't possibly see it, her hair broke into the +jolliest little waves and curls, which bobbed merrily about even +on the worst Saturday that ever was; and spoiled the effect +whenever she tried to be severe. + +When she had given a final wipe with the brush, she took another +look at Jock. There was still nothing to be seen of him but the +shock of sandy hair and a series of bumps under the blanket. Jock +could feel Jean looking at him right through the bed-clothes. + +"Jock," said Jean,--and her voice had a Saturday sound to it,-- +"You can't sleep in this day! Get up!" + +There was no answer. Jock might well have known that Jean was in +no mood for trifling, but, having decided on his course of +action, he stuck to it like a true Scotchman and neither moved +nor opened his eyes. Jean was driven to desperate measures. She +took a few drops of water in the dipper, marched firmly to the +bedside, and stood with it poised directly above Jock's nose. + +"Jock," she said solemnly, "I'm telling you! Don't ever say I +didn't. If you don't stir yourself before I count five, you'll be +sorry. One, two, three!" Still no move from Jock. "Four, five," +and, without further parley, she emptied the dipper on his +freckled nose. + +There was a wrathful snort and a violent convulsion of the +blankets, and an instant later Jock was tearing about the kitchen +like a cat in a fit, but by this time Jean was out of doors and +well beyond reach. + +"Come here, you limmer!" he howled. But Jean knew better than to +accept his invitation. Instead she skipped laughing down the path +from the door to the brook which ran bubbling and gurgling by the +house. Even in her hasty exit from the cottage, Jean had had the +presence of mind to take the pail with her, and now she stopped +to fill it from the clear, sparkling water of the burn. It was +such a wonderful bright spring morning that, having filled it, +she stopped for a moment to look about her at the dear familiar +surroundings of her home. + +There was the little gray house itself, with the peat smoke +curling from the chimney straight up into the blue sky. Back of +it was the garden-patch with its low stone wall, and back of that +were the fowl-yard and the straw-covered byre for the cow. +Beyond, and to the north lay the moors, covered with heather and +dotted with grazing sheep. Jean could hear the tinkle of their +bells, the bleating of the lambs, and the comforting maternal +answers of the ewes. Above the dark forest which spread itself +over the slopes of the foot-hills toward the south and east a +lave rock was singing, and she could hear the cry of whaups +wheeling and circling over the moors. They were pleasant morning +sounds, dear and familiar to Jean's ear, and oh, the sparkle of +the dew on the bracken, and the smell of the hawthorn by the +garden wall! Jean lifted her pail of water and went singing with +it up the hill-slope to the house for sheer joy that she was +alive. + +"The Campbells are coming, O ho, O ho!" she sang, and the hills, +taking up the refrain, echoed "O ho, O ho!" + +True Tammas, who had slept all night under the straw-stack by the +byre, came bounding down the little path to meet her, wagging his +tail and barking his morning greeting. They reached the door +together, but Jock, mindful of his injuries, had shut and barred +it, and was grinning at them through the window. Jean sat placidly +down upon the step with True Tammas beside her and continued her +song. Her calmness irritated Jock. + +"Aye," he shouted through the crack, "the Campbells may be +coming, but they'll not get in this house! You can just sit there +blethering all day, and I'll never unbar the door." + +Jean stopped singing long enough to answer: "You'll get no +breakfast, then, you mind, unless you'll be getting it yourself, +for the porridge is not cooked and the kettle's nearly boiled +away. I've the water-pail with me, and there's not a drop else in +the house." + +She left him to consider this and resumed her song. For several +minutes she and True Tammas sat there gazing westward across the +valley with the little river flowing through it, to the hills +swimming in the blue distance beyond. + +At last she called over her shoulder, "Jock, Father's coming," +and Jock, seeing that his cause was hopelessly lost, unfastened +the door. Jean, her father, and True Tammas all came into the +kitchen together, and the moment she was in the room again you +should have seen how she ordered things about! + +"Set the milk right down here, Father," she said, tapping the +table with her finger as she flew past to get the strainer and a +pan, "and you, Jock, fill the kettle. It's almost dry this +minute. And stir up the fire under it. Tam,"--that was what they +called the dog for short,--"go under the table or you'll get +stepped on!" + +You should have seen how they all minded!--even the father, who +was six feet tall, with a jaw like a nut-cracker and a face that +would have looked very stern indeed if it hadn't been for his +twinkling blue eyes. When the milk was strained and put away in +the little shed room back of the kitchen chimney, Jean got out +the oatmeal-kettle and hung the porridge over the fire, and while +that was cooking she set three places at the tiny table and +scalded the churn. Meanwhile Jock went out to feed the fowls. By +half past six the oatmeal was on the table and the little family +gathered about it, reverently bowing their heads while the +Shepherd of Glen Easig asked a blessing upon the food. + +There was only porridge and milk for breakfast, so it took but a +short time to eat it, and then the real work of the day began. +The Shepherd put on his Kilmarnock bonnet and called Tam, who had +had his breakfast on the hearth, and the two went away to the +hills after the sheep. Jock led the cow to a patch of green turf +near the bottom of the hill, where she could find fresh pasture, +and Jean was left alone in the kitchen of the little gray house. +Ah, you should have seen her then! She washed the dishes and put +them away in the cupboard, she skimmed the milk and put the cream +into the churn, she swept the hearth and shook the blankets out +of doors in the fresh morning air. Then she made the beds, and +when the kitchen was all in order, she "went ben"--that was the +way they spoke of the best room--and dusted that too. There +wasn't really a bit of need of dusting the room, for it was +never, never used except on very important occasions, such as +when the minister called. The little house was five miles from +the village, so the minister did not come often, but Jean kept it +clean all the time just to be on the safe side. + +There wasn't so very much work to do in the room after all, for there +was nothing in it but the fireplace, a little table with the Bible, +the Catechism, and a copy of Burns's poems on it, and three chairs. +The kitchen was a different matter: There were the beds, and they were +hard for a small girl to manage, and the cupboard with its shelves of +dishes. There were three stools, and a big chair for the Shepherd, and +the great chest where the clothes were kept, and besides all these +things there was the wag-at-the-wall clock on the mantel-shelf which +had to be wound every Saturday night. If you want to know just where +these things stood, you have only to look at the plan, where their +places are so plainly marked that, if you were suddenly to wake up in +the middle of the night and find yourself in the little gray house, +you could go about and put your hand on everything in it in the dark. + +Jock stayed with the cow as long as he dared, and went back to +the house only when he knew he couldn't postpone his tasks any +longer. Jean was sweeping the doorstep as he came slowly up the +hill. + +"Come along, Grandfather," she called out, her brow sternly +puckered in front and her curls bobbing gaily up and down behind. +"A body'd think you were seventy-five years old and had the +rheumatism to see you move! Come and work the churn a bit. 'Twill +limber you up." + +Jock knew that arguments were useless. His father had told him, +girl's work or not, he was to help Jean, so he slowly dragged +into the house and slowly began to move the dasher up and down. + +"Havers!" said Jean, when she could stand it no longer. "It's +lucky there's a cover to the churn else you'd drop to sleep and +fall in and drown yourself in the buttermilk! The butter won't be +here at this rate till to-morrow, when it would break the Sabbath +by coming!" + +She seized the dasher, as she spoke, and began to churn so +vigorously that the milk splashed up all around the handle. Soon +little yellow specks began to appear; and when they had formed +themselves into a ball in the churn, she lifted it out with a +paddle and put it in a pan of clear cold water. Then she gave +Jock a drink of buttermilk. + +"Poor laddie!" she said. "You are all tired out! Take a sup of +this to put new strength in you, for you've got to go out and +weed the garden. I looked at the potatoes yesterday, and the +weeds have got the start of them already." + +"If I must weed the garden, give me something to eat too," begged +Jock. "This milk'll do no more than slop around in my insides to +make me feel my emptiness." + +Jean opened the cupboard door and peeped within. + +"There's nothing for you, laddie," she said, "but this piece of a +scone. I'll have to bake more for the Sabbath, and you can have +this to give yourself a more filled-up feeling. And now off with +you!" + +She took him by the collar and led him to the door; and there on +the step was Tam. + +"What are you doing here?" cried Jean, astonished to see him. +"You should be with Father, watching the sheep! It's shame to a +dog to be lolling around the house instead of away on the hills +where he belongs." + +Tam flattened himself out on his stomach and dragged himself to +her feet, rolling his eyes beseechingly upward, and if ever a dog +looked ashamed of himself, that dog was Tam. Jean shook her head +at him very sternly, and oh, how the jolly little curls bobbed +about. + +"Tam," she said, "you're as lazy as Jock himself. Whatever shall +I do with the two of you?" + +Jock had already finished his scone and he thought this a good +time to disappear. He slipped round the corner of the house and +whistled. All Tam's shame was gone in an instant. He gave a +joyous bark and bounded away after Jock, his tail waving gayly in +the breeze. + + + + +II. THE RABBIT AND THE GAMEKEEPER + + +Out in the garden a rabbit had for some time been enjoying +himself nightly in the potato-patch, biting off the young sprouts +which were just sticking their heads through the ground. When the +rabbit heard Tam bark she dashed out of sight behind a burdock +leaf and sat perfectly still. Now if Tam and Jock had come into +the garden by the wicket gate, as they should have done, this +story might never have been written at all, because in that case +the rabbit would perhaps have got safely back to her burrow in +the woods without being seen, and there wouldn't have been any +story to tell. + +But Tam and Jock didn't come in by the gate. They jumped over the +wall. Jock jumped first and landed almost on top of the rabbit, +but when Tam, a second later, landed in the same place, she was +running for dear life toward the hole in the stone wall where she +had got in. Shouting and barking, Jock and Tam tore after her. +Round and round the garden they flew, but just as they thought +they had her cornered, the rabbit slipped through the hole in the +wall and ran like the wind for the woods. Jock and Tam both +cleared the wall at a bound and chased after her, making enough +noise to be heard a mile away. + +It happened that there was some one much less than a mile away to +hear it. And it happened, too, that he was the one person in all +the world that Jock would most wish not to hear it, for he was +gamekeeper to the Laird of Glen Cairn, and the Laird of Glen +Cairn owned all the land for miles and miles about in every +direction. He owned the little gray house and the moor, the +mountain, and the forest, and even the little brook that sang by +the door. To be sure, the Laird seemed to care very little for +his Highland home. He visited it but once in a great while, and +then only for a few days' hunting. The rest of the year his great +stone castle was occupied only by Eppie McLean, the housekeeper, +and two or three other servants. The Laird did not know his +tenants, and they did not know him. The rents were collected for +him by Mr. Craigie, his factor, who lived in the village, and +Angus Niel was appointed to see that no one hunted game on the +estate. + +Angus was a man of great zeal in the performance of his duty, to +judge by his own account of it. He was always telling of heroic +encounters with poachers in the forests, and though he never +seemed to succeed in catching them and bringing them before the +magistrate, his tales were a warning to evil-doers and few people +dared venture into the region which he guarded. He was often seen +creeping along the outskirts of the woods, his gun on his +shoulder, his round eyes rolling suspiciously in every direction, +or even loitering around the cow byres as if he thought game +might be secreted there. + +At the very moment when Jock and Tam came flying over the fence +and down the hill like a cyclone after the rabbit, Angus was +kneeling beside the brook to get a drink. His lips were pursed up +and he was bending over almost to the surface of the water, when +something dashed past him, and an instant later something else +struck him like a thunderbolt from behind, and drove him +headforemost into the brook! It wasn't Tam that did it. It was +Jock! Of course, it was an accident, but Angus thought he had +done it on purpose, and he was probably the most surprised as +well as the angriest man in Scotland at that moment. He lifted +his head out of the brook and glared at Jock as fiercely as he +could with little rills of water pouring from his hair and nose, +and trickling in streams down his neck. + +"I'll make you smart for this, you young blatherskite," he roared +at Jock, who stood before him frozen with horror. "I'll teach you +where you belong! You were running after that rabbit, and your +dog is yelping down a hole after her this minute!" He was such a +funny sight as he knelt there, dripping and scolding, that, +scared as he was, Jock could not help laughing. More than ever +enraged, Angus made a sudden lunge forward and seized Jock by the +ear. + +"You come along o' me," he said. His invitation was so urgent +that Jock felt obliged to accept it, and together the two started +up the slope to the little gray house. Tam, meanwhile, had given +up the chase and joined them, his tail at half-mast. + +When they reached the house Angus bumped the door open without +knocking, and stamped into the kitchen. Jean was bending over the +fire turning a scone on the girdle, when the noise at the door +made her jump and look around. She was so amazed at the sight +which met her eye that for an instant she stood stock-still, and +Angus, seeing that he had only two children to deal with, gave +Jock's ear a vicious tweak and began to bluster at Jean. + +But, you see, he didn't know Jean. When she saw that great fat +man abusing her brother and tracking mud all over her kitchen +floor at the same time, instead of being frightened, as she +should have been, Jean shook her cooking-fork at Angus Niel and +stamped her foot smartly on the floor. + +"You let go of my brother's ear this instant," she shouted, "and +take your muddy boots out of my kitchen!" + +Angus let go of Jock's ear for sheer surprise, and Jock at once +sprang to his sister's side, while Tam, seeing that trouble was +brewing, gave a low growl and bared his teeth. Angus gave a look +at Tam and decided to explain. + +"This young blatherskite here," he began, in a voice that caused +the rafters to shake, "has been trespassing. He was after a +rabbit. I caught him in the very act. I'll have the law on him! +He rammed me into the burn!" + +"I didn't mean to," shouted Jock, "I thought you were a stone, +and I just meant to step on you and jump across the burn." + +"You meant to step on me, did you?" roared Angus. "Me! Do you +know who I am?" Jock knew very well, but he didn't have time to +say so before Angus, choking with rage, made a furious lunge for +his ear and left two more great spots of mud on the kitchen +floor. It was not to be borne. Jean pointed to his feet. + +"You're trespassing yourself," she screamed. "You've no right in +this house, And you take yourself out of it this minute! Just +look at the mud you've tracked on my floor!" + +Angus did look. He looked not only at the floor but at Tam, for +Tam was now slowly approaching him, growling as he came. + +Angus thought best to do exactly as Jean said and as quickly as +possible. He reached the door in two jumps with Tam leaping after +him and nipping his heels at each jump, and in another instant +found himself on the doorstep with the door shut behind him. + +Angus considered himself a very important man. He wasn't used to +being treated in this way, and it's no wonder he was angry. He +swelled up like a pouter pigeon; and shook his fist at the door. + +"You just mind who I am," he shouted. "If ever I catch you +poaching again, I'll have you up before the bailie as sure as +eggs is eggs!" + +But the door didn't say a word, and it seemed beneath his dignity +to scold a door that wouldn't even answer back, so he stamped +away growling. The children watched him until he disappeared in +the woods, and when at last they turned from the window, the +scone on the girdle was burned to a cinder and had to be given to +the chickens! + +You might have thought that by this time Jean had done enough +work even for Saturday, but there was still the broth to make for +supper and for the Sabbath, and the kitchen floor to be scrubbed, +and, last of all, the family baths! When the little kitchen was +as clean as clean could be, Jean got the wash-tub and set it on +the hearth. Jock knew the signs and decided he'd go out behind +the byre and look for eggs, but Jean had her eye on him. + +"Jock Campbell," said she, "you go at once and get the water." + +In vain Jock assured her he was cleaner than anything and didn't +need a bath. Jean was firm. She made him fill the kettles, and +when the water was hot, she shut him up in the kitchen with soap +and a towel while she took all the shoes to the front steps to +polish for Kirk on the morrow. When at last Jock appeared before +her he was so shiny clean that Jean said it dazzled her eyes to +look at him, so she sent him for the cow while she took her turn +at the tub. + +By four o'clock, Tam, who had spent an anxious afternoon by the +hole in the garden wall watching for the rabbit, suddenly +remembered his duties and started away over the moors to meet the +Shepherd and round up any sheep that might have strayed from the +flock, and at five Jock, returning from the byre, met his father +coming home with Tam at his heels. + +The regular evening tasks were finished just as the sun sank out +of sight behind the western hills, and the birds were singing +their evening songs, and when they went into the kitchen a bright +fire was blazing on the hearth, the broth was simmering in the +kettle, and Jean had three bowls of it ready for them on the +table. + +While they ate their supper Jock told their father all about the +rabbit and Angus Niel and his ducking in the burn, and when Jock +told about Jean's ordering him out of the kitchen, and of his +jumping to the door with Tam nipping at his heels, the Shepherd +slapped his knee and laughed till he cried. Tam, sitting on the +hearth with his tongue lolling out, looked as if he were +laughing, too. + +"Havers!" cried the Shepherd, "I wish I'd been here to see that +sight! Angus is that swollen up with pride of position, he's like +to burst himself. He needed a bit of a fall to ease him of it, +but I'd never have picked out Jean Campbell to trip him up! +You're a spirited tid, my dawtie, and I'm proud of you." + +"But, Father," said Jock, "whatever shall we do about the +rabbits? The woods are full of them, and there'll not be a sprig +of green left in the garden. They can hop right over the wall, +even if we do stop up the hole." + +"Aye," answered his father solemnly, "and that's a serious +question, my lad. They get worse every year, and syne we'll have +no tatties for the winter, let alone other vegetables. A deer +came into Andrew Crumpet's garden one night last week and left +not a green sprout in it by the morning. The creatures must live +that idle gentlemen may shoot them for pleasure, even though they +eat our food and leave us to go hungry." His brow darkened and a +long-smouldering wrath burst forth into words. "There's no +justice in it," he declared, thumping the table with his fist +till the spoons danced, "Lairds or no Lairds, Anguses or no +Anguses." + +The Twins had never before heard their father speak like that, +and they were a little frightened. They were too young to know +the long years of injustice in such matters that stretched far +back into the history of Scotland. + +For a few minutes after this outburst the Shepherd remained +silent, gazing into the fire; then he roused himself from his +brown study and said: "I've been keeping something from you, my +bairns. Mr. Craigie told me last week that the Auld Laird has +taken a whim to turn all this region into a game preserve, and +that he will not renew our lease when the time is up. It has till +autumn to run, and then, God help us, we'll have to be turned out +of this house where I've lived all my life and my forebears +before me, and seek some other place to live and some other work +to do." + +"But what can you do else?" gasped Jock. He felt that his world +was tumbling about his ears. + +"The Lord knows," answered the Shepherd. "Emigrate to America +likely. I've always been with the sheep and nothing else. It may +be I can hire out to some other body, but chances are few +hereabouts, and if the Auld Laird carries out this notion, +there'll be many another beside ourselves who'll need to be +walking the world. It seems unlikely he would be for taking away +the town too, even if it is but a wee bit of a village, and the +law gives him the right, for times have changed since that lease +was made, long years ago, and there are few in this day who would +venture to enforce it. But the Auld Laird's a hard man, I'm told, +and he chooses hard men to carry out his will. Mr. Craigie has +little heart, and as for Angus Niel, he'd make things worse +rather than better if he had his way." Then, seeing tears +gathering in Jean's eyes, he said to comfort her, "There now, +dinna greet, my lassie! There's no sense in crossing a bridge +till you come to it, and this bridge is still four months and a +bittock away. We've the summer before us, and the Lord's arm is +not shortened that it cannot save. We'll make the best of it and +have one more happy summer, let the worst come at the end of it." + +"But, Father," urged Jock, "will he turn every one out, do you +think?" + +"Who can foretell the whimsies of a selfish man?" answered the +Shepherd. "He has only his own will to consider, but my opinion +is he'll turn out those whose holdings lie nearest the forests +and would be best for game, whatever he may do with the rest." + +This was overwhelming news, and the children sat silent beside +their silent father, trying to think of something to comfort +their sad hearts. At last Jean lifted her head with a spirited +toss and said, "Gin we were to go to-morrow, the dishes would +still have to be washed," and she began to clear the table. + +Her father laughed, and oh, how his laugh brightened the little +kitchen and seemed to bid defiance to the fates! + +"That's right, little woman," he said. "You've the true spirit of +a Campbell in you. We must aye do the duty at hand and trust the +Lord for the rest." + +Jock was so impressed with the solemn talk of the evening that he +wiped the dishes without being asked and went to bed of his own +accord when the wag-at-the-wall clock struck eight. The Shepherd +sat alone beside the fire until the children were in bed and +asleep; then he sent Tam to the straw stack, wound the clock, and +took his own turn at the tub. Last of all he covered the coals +with ashes for the night and crept into bed beside Jock. + + + + +III. THE SABBATH + + +The Sabbath morning dawned bright and clear, and the Campbells +were all up early and had the chores done before seven o'clock. +Then came breakfast, and after breakfast Jean ran "ben the room," +and brought the Bible to her father. Then she and Jock sat with +folded hands while he read a long chapter about the "begats." +Jock thought there seemed to be a very large family of them. This +was followed by a prayer as long as the chapter. The prayer was +so long that True Tammas went sound asleep on the hearth and had +a dream that must have been about the rabbit, for his ears +twitched and he made little whiny noises and jerked his legs. It +was so long that the kettle boiled clear away and made such +alarming, crackling sounds that Jean couldn't help peeking +through her fingers just once, because it was their only kettle, +and if it should go and burst itself during family prayers, +whatever should they do! The moment the Shepherd said "Amen," +Jean sprang so quickly to lift it from the fire that she stumbled +over Tam and woke him up and almost burned her fingers besides. +The kettle wasn't really spoiled, and while the water was heating +in it for the dishes, Jean took up the little yellow book and +said to Jock, + +"Come here now, laddie, and see if you can say your catechism. Do +you ken what is the chief end of man?" + +"Dod, and I do," answered Jock. "You let me spier the questions." + +"No," answered Jean firmly. "I'll spier them first myself." + +"You're thinking I can't answer," said Jock. "I'll fool you." + +He stood up as straight as a whole row of soldiers and fired off +the answer all in one breath. + +"The-chief-end-of-man-is-to-glorify-God-and-enjoy-Him-forever," +he shouted. + +Jean nodded approvingly. "You ken that one all right, but that is +the first one in the book and everybody knows that one. Now I'm +going to skip around." + +"Don't skip," urged Jock. "Take them just the way they come. I +can remember 'em better." + +But Jean gave no quarter. "What is predestination?" she demanded. + +This was a poser, but Jock tackled it bravely. + +"Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to-to-" he got so +far and stuck. + +"To what?" asked Jean. + +"To be reformed," Jock hazarded, wallowing in difficulties. + +"Conformed," corrected Jean. "You don't know that one at all! +What is Saving Grace?" + +Jock fell down entirely on saving grace. "It's a--It's a--" he +began. Then he bit his lip and scowled, and looked up at the ham +hanging from the rafters, and out of the windows, but as nothing +more about saving grace occurred to him he said, "Aw, Jean, I +know, but I can't think." + +"If you knew, you wouldn't have to think," Jean retorted, and +then she made him take the book and sit down on the stool by the +window and learn both answers while she finished the dishes. + +It was ten miles to the village and back, and there was no way to +get there except by walking, but the Campbells would sooner have +thought of going without their food than of staying away from the +Kirk, and so by eight o'clock they were all dressed in their best +clothes and ready to start. They left True Tammas sitting on the +doorstep with his ears drooped and his eyes looking very +sorrowful. He wanted to go with them, but he knew well that he +must stay at home to guard the sheep from stray dogs. + +It was springtime, and the world was so lovely that the troubles +the little family had faced the evening before seemed far away +and impossible in the morning light. It was as if they had +awakened from a bad dream. Who could help being happy on such a +morning? The birds were flying about with straw and bits of wool +in their bills to weave into their nests, and singing as if they +would split their little throats. The river splashed and gurgled +and sang as it dashed over its rocky bed on its way to the sea. +From the village came the distant music of the church bells. The +hawthorn was in bloom, and the river-banks and roadsides were gay +with dandelions and violets, daisies and buttercups. Far away the +mountains lifted their blue summits to the sky, and on a nearer +hill they could see the gray towers of the castle of the Laird of +Glen Cairn. + +The bell was ringing its final summons and all the people were +pouring into the little vestibule as the Campbells reached the +steps of the Kirk. Angus Niel pushed past them, looking as puffy +as a turkey-cock with its feathers spread, and glaring at the +Twins so fiercely that Jock whispered to Jean, "If I poked my +finger at him I believe he'd gobble," and made her almost laugh +aloud. When they passed Mr. Craigie, who held the plate for +people to drop their money in, Jean whispered to Jock, "He looks +for all the world like a pair of tongs in his blacks, he's that +tall and thin," and then Jock certainly would have laughed +outright if he hadn't seen Mrs. Crumpet's eye on him. + +The sermon was very long and the seats were hard and high, but +the service did come to an end at last, although Jock was sure it +was never going to, and afterward the children with their father +stood about in the churchyard for a little while talking to their +neighbors and friends. + +The farm of Andrew Crumpet lay in the same direction as the home +of the Campbells, so it was natural that they should walk along +together and that the two men should talk about the thing that +was uppermost in their minds. Mrs. Crumpet had gone on ahead with +another neighbor, and Sandy Crumpet, who was twelve too, and had +yellow hair, a snub nose, and freckles like Jock's own, walked +with the Twins behind the two fathers. As they turned into the +road, the children heard Andrew say, with a heavy sigh: "Aye, +Robin, we must just make up our minds to it. The Auld Laird's +bent on getting us out." + +"Has Mr. Craigie given you notice, too?" asked the Shepherd. + +"Aye, has he," Andrew answered with bitterness, "and short work +he made of it. It means little to him telling a man to leave his +home and go out in the world to seek new work at our time of +life." + +"He passes for a religious man," said the Shepherd. + +"So did the Pharisee in the temple," said Andrew, "but 'by their +fruits ye shall know them,' and we're not gathering any figs off +of Mr. Craigie, nor grapes from that thorn of an Auld Laird that +I can see!" + +"Nor from Angus Niel, either," agreed Robin Campbell. "The Auld +Laird's servants are of a piece with himself." + +"Fine I ken that," answered Andrew. + +"Well," sighed the Shepherd, "the toad under the harrow cannot be +expected to praise the plowman, and we're just like the toad." + +"Very true," said Andrew, "but the toad has the best of it. We +are being destroyed; not that some one may till the land, but +that it may go to waste, and be kept out of use. We suffer that +the rich may be richer and the poor poorer, that less food may be +produced instead of more. I tell you, Robin, it is not justice." + +"It may be so. It may be so," sighed the Shepherd, "but it is the +law, and we must just submit." + +The two men walked on in silence to the bridge, where the +Crumpets turned, while the Campbells kept on beside the river. +The children were silent, too, only calling out "Good-bye" to +Sandy as they parted, Jock adding, "Come on by to-morrow if you +can," and Sandy, waving his hand, calling back, "Aye, will I." + +As the Twins and their father neared the "wee bit hoosie," Tam +came bounding down the brae to meet them, and in less time than +it takes to tell it Jean had run into the house, taken off her +Sabbath dress, and put on her old one, with her kitchen apron +over it, had mended the fire and heated the broth, and the little +family was seated about the table eating their frugal meal with +appetites sharpened by their long walk. + +The afternoon seemed endless to the children, for they spent it +trying hard not to do any of the things they wanted to do. They +studied the catechism while their father sat with his bonnet on +his head nodding over the Bible, and the wag-at-the-wall clock +ticked the hours solemnly away. Jock whispered to Jean that he +didn't see why Sunday was so much longer than any other day, and +didn't believe her when she said it wasn't really that it only +seemed so. + + + + +IV. THE NEW BOY + + +Usually Jean and Jock went to school in summer, for in winter the +snow made the roads impassable, but at this time the Dominie was +ill and until he should get well they had the long days to +themselves. When breakfast was over the next morning and the +Shepherd had gone with Tam to the hills, Jean decided to wash the +clothes. Sandy Crumpet came early, and the two boys went off to +play, leaving Jean standing on a stone in the middle of the burn, +soaping the clothes and scrubbing them on the flat surface of a +rock. The water was so cold it made her arms ache, and she soon +decided to let the fast-running stream do the washing for her. +She soaped the garments well, weighted them down with stones, and +then went to join the boys. She found them flat on their stomachs +by the stream, gazing down into a pool of clear water. + +"What do you see?" she called out to them. + +"Trout," answered Jock, his eyes shining with excitement. + +"Let me take a keek," said Jean, flopping down beside them and +craning her neck over the edge. + +They were all three peering with breathless interest into the +water when a strange voice behind them made them jump. For an +instant they thought it might be Angus Niel. + +"Hello!" said the voice. + +The children whirled around, and there before them stood a boy +not much older than themselves, but taller and thinner. He had a +pale face with large black eyes and dark hair partly covered with +a Glengarry bonnet set rakishly over one ear. He wore a suit of +gray tweed with plaid-topped stockings, and carried a fishing-rod +over his shoulder. + +"Hello!" said the stranger again. + +"Hello, yourself!" responded Jock. + +Jean and Sandy were so relieved to find it wasn't Angus Niel that +for an instant they merely gazed at him without speaking. + +"What's there?" asked the new boy. + +"Fish," said Jock. + +"Fish!" cried the new boy, shifting his rod into position. +"Where? Let me have a crack at 'em!" + +"Na, na, don't be so hasty," cried Jock, heading him off. "You'll +get yourself into trouble! Angus Niel would be after you in no +time, and if he caught you, he'd cuff your lug for you, and drag +you before the bailie for poaching!" + +"Who's Angus Niel?" demanded the boy. "I'm not afraid of him." + +"Not yet," answered Jock, "but just go on and you will be! He's +gamekeeper to the Laird, and he'd rather do for you than not. +Aye, he'd just like the feel of you in his fingers, he would." +Jock rubbed his ear. "It's but two days gone since he nearly +pulled the lug off me because I was running after a rabbit that +was eating up our garden. He's terrible suspicious, is Angus, and +he's mad at us besides." + +"What for?" asked the boy. + +"I stepped on him by accident," explained Jock, "and butted him +into the burn." + +"No wonder he was mad," laughed the boy. "Come on, now. Surely a +body can fish. There's no law against that!" + +"Well," said Sandy, "law or no law, Angus is against it, and the +Auld Laird is terrible particular. He's going to turn out all the +farmers in this region and make it into a great game preserve. +Nothing else. You're strange hereabouts, I doubt, or you'd ken +all this yourself. Where are you from?" + +"I'm from London," replied the boy. "I'm staying with Eppie +McLean at the castle." + +"Are you, now?" gasped Sandy. "Is Eppie your aunt, maybe? She'll +be telling you about Angus herself." + +"Eppie's not my aunt," said the boy. "She's a friend of my +mother, and my mother got her to take me in because I've been +sick, and she thought I'd get strong up here, and I'm not going +to have my summer spoiled by Angus Niel or any other old bogie +man. Stand back now while I cast." + +He swung his rod over his head, and the fly fell with a flop in +the middle of the pool. He waited a breathless instant while +Jock, Sandy, and Jean watched the fly with him, and then, as +nothing happened, he cast again. When several such attempts +brought no result, he said, "You're sure they 're there?" + +"They're lying at the bottom as soft as a baby in a cradle," said +Jean. "I could catch them with a skimmer! Gin they don't bite, +maybe I'll try it!" + +Jock looked at Jean in amazement. + +"You're a braw lassie, Jean Campbell," he said severely, "and you +just telling about Angus Niel!" + +"T'was yourself and Sandy here telling about Angus Niel," Jean +answered. "I said nothing at all about him. I'm not afraid of +him, either." + +"Good for you!" said the new boy with admiration. "You can have a +turn with my rod. Try it once before you get the skimmer!" + +Jean sprang to her feet and took the rod, though she had never +had one like it in her hand before. She made a mighty sweep with +it as she had seen the new boy do, but somehow the fly flew off +in an unexpected direction and caught in a tree, while the line +wound itself in a hopeless snarl around the tip. Jock and Sandy, +who had stood by, green with envy, clapped their hands over their +mouths and danced with mirth. + +"It looks easy," said poor Jean mournfully, "but maybe I'd best +stick to the skimmer when I fish." + +"Oh, it always does that the first time," said the new boy +comfortingly, as he rescued the fly and straightened out the +line. + +"When a girl tries to do it," added Jock witheringly. + +The new boy held out the rod. + +"You try it," he said to Jock, and Jock, full of confidence, did +not wait for a second invitation. + +"Look here, Jean," he said. "This is the way you do it." + +He swung the rod with a mighty flourish over his head, bud alas, +the fly surprised him too. It caught in Sandy's trousers and +surprised Sandy as well. Not only that, it scratched him. + +"Ow!" howled Sandy, leaping about like a monkey on the end of the +string. "Leave go of me!" + +There was a snarl even worse than Jean's, too, and between that +and Sandy's jumping about it was some time before the line was +disentangled and the hook freed so that Sandy was able to take +his turn. Jean, meanwhile, said nothing at all, for Jock looked +so crestfallen that she hadn't the heart. When Sandy tried it +things were still worse, for the fly flew about so wildly that +Jock and Jean fled before it and hid behind some bushes. + +"Whoever could catch fish with such gewgaws as them anyway?" said +Sandy scornfully, when a second attempt brought no better result. +"The fish aren't used to it." + +Jock rolled up his sleeves, crept to the side of the burn, and +looked over into the pool. + +"Hold to me, Sandy," he said, and Sandy immediately sat down on +his legs. Then Jock suddenly plunged his arms into the water and +before the fish could whisk their tails he had caught one in his +hand and thrown it on the grass. + +Springing to his feet and upsetting Sandy, he jumped to a rock in +the middle of the brook and caught two more. It was now the new +boy's turn to be astonished. Apparently Jock had stirred up a +whole school of trout, for Sandy, following Jock's lead, also +leaped into the stream, and in a few moments six fine trout were +flopping about the grass. + +"Let's build a fire and cook them," urged the new boy, whose name +they soon learned was Alan McRae. "And if old Angus Niel comes +nosing around we'll offer him a bite! He can do nothing with four +of us, anyway, unless he shoots us, and he'd hang for that. Come +on!" + +By this time they were all so thrilled with the sport and were +having such fun that nobody thought any more about Angus anyway, +so Jean ran for a pan, while Jock and Sandy cleaned the fish with +Alan's knife, and Alan gathered dry twigs and bracken for the +fire. Jean brought down some scones, which she split and spread +with butter while the fish were frying. When they were done to a +golden brown she put a hot fish on each piece of scone and handed +them out to the boys, and when they had eaten every scrap they +buried the fish-bones in case Angus should come that way. + +After lunch Jean went to wring out the clothes and hang them on +the bushes to dry, while Jock and Sandy examined Alan's wonderful +book of flies and his reel, and even the creel in which he was to +have put the fish, if he had caught any. + +"Losh, man!" exclaimed Sandy, swaggering about with his hands in +his pockets, "that's all very well. Aye, it's a good game, and +you might go dandering along a stream all day playing with it, +but if you really want fish, just go after 'em yourself! That's +my way. Guddling for trout like you saw me and Jock do, that's +the real sport!" + +"I believe you," said Alan. "I'm going to try it myself. Come on. +Let's go farther up stream and see if we can find another good +fishing-hole. I told Eppie I'd bring her a fish to her tea, and +I'd hate to go back with nothing at all," and the three boys +disappeared in the woods. + +Jean finished her work by the brook and went to the house to make +more scones, for the picnic had exhausted the supply and they +used no other bread. She bustled about the kitchen, mixing, +spreading them on the girdle over the fire, keeping the coals +bright, and turning them out nicely browned on the mixing-board. +She was just finishing the sixth one, when there was a great +thumping at the door, and she ran to see what was the matter. +There on the doorstep stood the three boys, Alan dripping wet +from head to heel, shivering with cold, and with mud and water +running from him in streams. Jean threw up her hands. + +"It's most michty," she cried, "if I can't ever bake scones in +this kitchen without some man body coming in half drowned to mess +up my clean floor! However did you go and drop yourself in the +burn, Alan McRae? 'Deed and I wonder that your mother lets you go +out alone, you're that careless with yourself. And you not long +out of a sick bed, too." + +"He was guddling for trout," shouted Jock and Sandy in one +breath; "and the hole was deep. There was no one sitting on him, +and syne over he went!" + +Jean seized Alan by the shoulder and drew him into the kitchen, +and set him to drip on the hearth while she gave her orders. + +"Jock, do you fill the basin with warm water, and you, Sandy, put +more peat on the fire. He must have a rinse with hot water and +something hot to drink." + +"What'll he do for clothes?" cried Jock. + +"Dinna fash yourself about clothes," said Jean, rummaging +furiously in the "kist." "I'm laying out Father's old kilts he +had when he was a boy. He can put them on till his own things are +dry. Here's a towel for you," she added, tossing one to Alan. +"Rub yourself down well, and when you've dressed, just give a +chap at the door, and I'll come in and get you a sup of tea." + +Then she disappeared. You can imagine what the kitchen looked +like when she came back again. Alan's wet clothes were spread out +on her father's chair by the fire, and Alan, gorgeous in his +plaid kiltie, was strutting back and forth giving an imitation of +the bagpipes on his nose, with Jock and Sandy marching behind him +singing "Do ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay" at the top of +their lungs. + +"Have you gone clean daft?" Jean shouted. "Sit down by the fire and +get out of my way while I mop up after you!" + +The boys each seized one of the kitchen stools without stopping +the song and marched with it to the hearth, and when they came to +"Peel's view halloo would awaken the dead," they gave a howl that +nearly brought down the ham from the rafters as they banged them +down on the hearth-stones. Jean clapped her hands over her ears +and ran for the mop, and in no time at all the puddles had +disappeared and the boys were drinking tea by the fire. + +Of course, Alan had no shoes to put on because his were soaking +wet, and as it was now late in the afternoon it began to be a +question how he should get back to the castle. It was still cold +for going barefoot, and he was not used to it besides, and his +clothes certainly would not be fit to put on for a long time. +They held a consultation. Alan thought he could go without shoes. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind," said Jean firmly. "What sickness +was it you had, anyway?" + +"Measles," said Alan, looking ashamed of it. + +"Measles!" shouted Sandy. "That's naught but a baby disease. My +little sister had that. Sal, but I've had worse things the matter +with me! I've had the fever, and once I cut my toe with the axe!" + +"Hold your tongue, Sandy," said Jean, "and dinna boast! If Alan's +had measles he can't go back to the castle barefoot; so you must +just be stepping yourself, and stop by at the castle to tell +Eppie McLean that Alan will bide here till his things are dry." + +Sandy rose reluctantly and set down his empty mug. + +"Well, then, if I must, I must," he said, and started off down the +hill whistling. + + + + +V. EVENING IN THE WEE BIT HOOSIE + + +When he was out of sight, Jean brought in the washing and then it +was time to get supper. Alan helped set the table and kept the +fire bright under the pot, while Jock fed the hens and brought in +the eggs; and when the Shepherd and Tam returned from the hills, +you can imagine how surprised they were to find three children +waiting for them instead of two. At supper the Shepherd had to be +told all the adventures of the day and how it happened that Alan +was wearing the kilts, and by the time it was over you would have +thought they had known each other all their lives. While Jean +cleared away the dishes, the Shepherd drew his chair to the fire +and beckoned Alan to him. + +"Come here, laddie," he said, "and give us a look at your +plaidie. It's been lying there in the kist, and I've not seen a +sight of it since I was a lad. It's the Campbell plaid, ye ken, +and I mind once when I was a lad I was on my way home from the +kirk and a hare crossed my path. It's ill luck for a hare to +cross your path, and fine I proved it. I clean forgot it was the +Sabbath and louped the dyke after him. My kiltie caught on a +stone, and there I was hanging upside down. My father loosed me, +but my kiltie was torn and I had to go to bed without my supper +for breaking the Sabbath." + +"Is the hole there yet?" asked Jean. + +"Na, na;" said the Shepherd. "You didn't think your grandmother +was such a thriftless wifie as that! She mended the hole so that +you could never find where it had been." + +He examined fold after fold carefully. + +"There, now," he exclaimed at last, "if you want to see mending +that would make you proud to wear it, look at that." + +Jean and Jock stuck their heads over his shoulder, and Alan +twisted himself nearly in two trying to see his own back. + +"We have a plaid a good deal like this," said Alan, looking +closely at the pattern. "My mother's name was McGregor, but she +has relations named Campbell." + +"Are you really a Scotch body, then?" cried Robin with new +interest in Alan. "I thought you were an English boy." + +"I live in London," Alan answered, "but my mother's people are +all Scotch, and she loves Scotland. That's one reason why she +sent me up here to be with Eppie McLean." + +"Losh, mannie," cried the Shepherd, "if you have Campbell +relatives and your mother's name was McGregor, it's likely you +are a descendant from old Rob Roy himself, and if so, we're all +kinsmen. Inversnaid, where Rob Roy's cave is, is but a few miles +from here, and it was in this very country that he hid himself +among rocks and caves, giving to the poor with his left hand what +he took from the rich with his right. Well, well, laddie, the +old clans are scattered now, but blood is thicker than water +still, and you're welcome to the fireside of your kinsman!" + +"Is he really a relation?" cried Jean and Jock eagerly. + +"Well," said the Scotchman cautiously, "I'm not saying he is +precisely, but I'm not saying he is not, either. The Campbells +and the McGregors have lived in these parts for better than two +hundred years, and it's not likely that Alan could lay claim to +both names and be no relation at all. If there were still clans, +as there used to be in the old days, we'd all belong to the same +one, and that I do not doubt." + +"I'm sure I'd like that," said Alan, and Jock was so delighted +with his new relative that he stood on his head in the middle of +the floor to express his feelings. When the excitement had died +down a bit, Alan drew his stool up beside the Shepherd's knee and +said: "Won't you please tell us about Rob Roy, Cousin Campbell? +If he's an ancestor of mine, I ought to know more about him." + +"Oh, do, Father," echoed the Twins, planting their stools beside +the other knee. Even Tam was interested. He sat on the hearth in +front of the Shepherd, looking up into his face as if he +understood every word. + +The Shepherd gazed thoughtfully into the fire for a moment; then he +said: "I can tell you what my grandsire told me, and he got it from +his grandsire, so it must be true. In the beginning Rob Roy was as +staunch a man as any, and held his own property like other gentlemen. +Craig Royston was the name of his place, and fine and proud he was of +it, too. He was a gey shrewd man in the cattle-dealing, and his +neighbor, the Duke of Montrose, thinking to benefit his own estate, +lent Rob money to set him up in the trade. There was a pawky rascal +named McDonald who was partner to Rob, and didn't he run away with the +money, leaving Rob in debt to the Duke and nothing to pay him with? +The Duke foreclosed on Rob at once, and took away Craig Royston and +added it to his own estate. You can well believe that Rob was not the +man to take such dealings with patience. If the Duke had not been so +hasty, Rob would more than likely have got hold of McDonald and made +him pay either out of his purse or out of his skin, but he did neither +the one nor the other. Instead he left his home and took his clan with +him into the mountains and became the terror of the whole +country-side." + +"Wasn't he a good man?" asked Jean, gazing at her father with +round eyes. + +"Well," said the Shepherd, "not just what you'd call pious, +maybe, and it cannot be said that he was aye regular at the kirk. +It's true he never forgot an enemy, but he never forgot a +kindness either and was loyal and true to them that were true to +him." + +"What did he do when they weren't true to him?" asked Jock. + +"He made them wish they had been," replied the Shepherd mildly. + +"But what made the Duke of Montrose take away Craig Royston?" +asked Jock. "Didn't he have a great big place of his own?" + +"Aye," answered Robin, "but what difference does that make? The +more land he had, the more land he wanted, the same as other +lairds. Be that as it may, Craig Royston was certainly taken away +from Rob, and a bitter man it made of him." + +"Why, it's just like ourselves and the Auld Laird," cried Jean. +"He's going to take away our home from us!" + +"It's not just the same, little woman," said the Shepherd, laying +his big brown hand on Jean's small one on his knee. "But the loss +of it hurts just the same. Rob Roy loved Craig Royston no better +than we love this wee bit hoosie." + +"But why must you go, then?" asked Alan, his eyes shining with +interest and sympathy. + +"You see; lad," answered the Shepherd, "it's like the tale of the +dog in the manger. The Auld Laird will neither use the land nor +let us." He explained about the lease, and when he had finished, +Alan said, "But what will you do when you leave this place?" + +"I'm spiering the same question myself," answered the Shepherd. +"As yet I dinna ken." + +"I tell you what," shouted Jock, springing to his feet and +knocking over his stool. "Why don't we live in the caves the way +Rob Roy did? If the Crumpets and all the people who have to give +up their homes should band together in a clan and hide themselves +in the glen, the Auld Laird could send all the Mr. Craigies and +Angus Niels in the world after us and they'd never get us!" + +The Shepherd smiled and shook his head. "The time for that has +gone by," he said sadly. "Na, na, we must just submit. But one +thing I do know, and that is, we'll not seek a place with the +Laird of Kinross. They say he will let his land to none but +members of the Established Church, and I'll not give up my +religion for any man not if I'm forever walking the world!" + +"But come, now," he went on, seeing them downcast, "you all have +faces on you as long as a summer Sabbath. Cheer up, and I'll tell +you a tale my grandfather told me of the water cow of Loch Leven. +You mind the song says, 'The Campbells are coming from bonnie +Loch Leven.' Well, it was around that loch that the Campbells +pastured their cattle. One day when my grandsire was a young lad +he was playing with some other children on the pastures near the +shore, when all of a sudden what should they see among their own +cows but a fine young dun-colored heifer without any horns. She +was lying by herself on the green grass, chewing her cud and +looking so gentle and pretty that the children played around her +without fear. They wound a wreath of daisies and put it on her +neck, and then they got on her back. The cow stretched out longer +and longer to make room for them until they were all on her back +except my grandsire. Then all of a sudden the dun cow rose up, +first on her hind legs, tipping the children all forward, and +then on her forelegs tipping them all back ward, yet no one fell +off at all, and when she was up on her feet, didn't she start +straight away for the deep waters of the loch? The children +screamed and tried to get off her back, but no matter how hard +they tried, there they stuck. My grandsire ran screaming toward +them, and put up his hand to pull them down, and his finger +touched the dun cow's back! Now never believe me, if his finger +didn't stick so he could not pull it away, and by that he knew +the dun heifer for a water cow and that she had bewitched the +children. He was being dragged along with them toward the water, +when all of a sudden he slipped out his knife and with one blow +chopped off his own finger and he was wanting that finger till +the day of his death." + +"What became of the others?" gasped Alan, his black eyes glowing +like coals. + +"They went on the dun cow's back into the lake, and the water +closed over them and they were never seen again," said the +Shepherd, "and that's the end of the tale." + +While the Shepherd talked, the twilight had deepened into +darkness, the fire had died down, and the corners of the room +were filled with mysterious tricky shadows that danced with the +flickering flames on the hearth. Jean looked fearfully over her +shoulder. There was a creepy feeling in the back of her neck, and +Jock's eyes were as round as door-knobs. The Shepherd laughed at +them. + +"Good children have little to fear from the fairy folk," he said. +"Come, now, your eyes are fair sticking out of your heads. I'll +give you a skirl on the bagpipes if Jeanie'll bring them from the +closet. Jock, stir up the fire, and Alan, give your clothes a +turn and see if they are drying." + +The children ran to do these errands, and in a moment the fire +was flaming gayly up the chimney, chasing the murky shadows out +of the corners and making the room bright and cheerful again, +while the Shepherd, tucking the bag under his arm, stirred the +echoes on old Ben Vane with the wild strains of "Bonnie Doon" and +"Over the Water to Charlie." At last he struck up the music of +the Highland Fling, and the three children sprang to the middle +of the floor and danced the wild Scotch dance together. + +Just as the fun was at its height, and Alan, looking very +handsome in his kilts, was doing the heel and toe with great +energy, there came a loud rap at the door. Instantly everything +stopped, just as short as Cinderella's ball did when the clock +struck twelve, and the Shepherd, laying aside his bagpipes, +opened the door. There stood a man with a bundle on his arm. +"Eppie McLean sent these clothes to the lad," he said, handing +the bundle to the Shepherd, "and he's to come back along with +me." Alan took the bundle, thanked the man, and disappeared with +Jock into "the room," where he changed his clothes, returning the +kilts, with regret, to Jock. "I've had just a grand day," he said +to Jean and the Shepherd as he shook hands and took leave of them +in the kitchen afterward. "I'll be back to-morrow for my +clothes." + +"Come back and play then," said Jock. + +When he was gone, Jean folded the kilts away in the closet again. +"He's a fine braw laddie," said the Shepherd. + +"Aye," said Jock. "He had two suits of clothes, one as good as +the other, but he was not proud." + +"I wonder what his father's work is," said Jean. + +"He never spoke of his father at all, just his mother," said +Jock, and at that moment the wag-at-the-wall clock struck nine. + +"Havers!" said Jean. "Look at the hour, Jock Campbell! Get you to +your bed." + + + + +VI. TWO DISCOVERIES + + +That night Jock dreamed of water cows, and clans dressed in +kilts, and when Sandy appeared the next morning, his head was +still buzzing with wild schemes of adventure. + +"Come awa', Sandy," he said, "let's explore. We'll go up the burn +and see if we can't find out where it begins." + +"What'll we do for lunch?" asked Sandy, who was practical. "I +brought a scone with me--but it'll never be enough for two." + +"Ho!" said Jock. "If Rob Roy and all his men could live in caves +all the time and take care of themselves, I guess we can do it +for one day. We can fish, and maybe we might find some birds' +eggs. I'm not afraid." + +"What about Alan?" asked Jean. + +"If he comes to play, tell him to follow us right up the burn and +keep whistling the pewit's call three times over, and if we don't +see him, we'll hear him," said Jock. "There's no danger of not +finding us if he follows the water," and he and Sandy set forth +at once. + +Jean had finished her work and was wondering what to do with the +long day which stretched before her, when Alan came running up +the hill and burst into the kitchen. + +"Look here what I've got, Jean," he said, thumping a parcel down +on the kitchen table and tearing it open. "Eppie put this up for +me." + +Jean looked and there was a whole pound of bacon, three big +scones, and a dozen eggs. "Save us!" cried Jean, clasping her +hands in admiration. "What will you do with it all?" + +"I'll show you!" said Alan. "Where's Jock?" + +"He and Sandy have gone up the burn, exploring," said Jean. "They +said you were to follow, and if you didn't find them, keep +whistling the pewit's call three times till they answered you." + +"What is the pewit's call?" asked Alan. + +"Michty me!" said Jean. "Think of not knowing that!" She pursed +up her lips and whistled "Pee-wit, pee-wit, pee-wit." + +"You see, we don't have them in London;" Alan apologetically +explained, "unless it's in the Zoo; but I say, Jean, aren't you +coming, too? You're as good as a boy any day. Come along!" + +"All right," said Jean. "I wanted to dreadfully. I'll get a +basket for the lunch." She went to the closet and brought out a +basket which her father had made out of split willow twigs, +packed the lunch in it, and off they started. + +They passed the place where the fish-bones were buried, and the +spot where Alan had fallen into the water the day before, and +then plunged into the deep pine forest which filled the glen and +covered the mountain-sides. The pine-needles lay thick on the +ground, and above them the pine boughs waved in the breeze, +making a soft sighing sound, "like a giant breathing," Jean said. +The silence deepened as they went farther and farther into the +woods. There was only the purring of the water, the occasional +snapping of a twig, or the lonely cry of a bird to break the +stillness. It was dark, too, except where the sunshine, breaking +through the thick branches overhead, made spots of golden light +upon the pine-needles. + +"It's almost solemn; isn't it?" said Jean to Alan in a hushed +voice. "I was never so far in the woods before." + +"I wonder which side of the burn the boys went. If we should +take the wrong side, we might not find them," said Alan. + +"Let's whistle," said Jean. She puckered her lips and gave the +pewit call, but there was no answer. + +"Perhaps they didn't hear it because the burn makes such a noise. +It keeps growing louder and louder," said Alan. + +Whistling and listening for an answer at every few steps, they +climbed over rocks and fallen trees, keeping as close as possible +to the stream, until suddenly they found themselves gazing up at +a beautiful waterfall which came gushing from a pile of giant +rocks reaching up among the topmost boughs of the pines. + +"Oh, it's bonny! but how shall we get up?" cried Jean. + +"We must just find a way," said Alan. + +"It's a grand place for robbers and +poachers," said Jean, looking fearsomely at the cliffs stretching +far above them. "Angus Niel says the forests are full of them." + +"I'd as soon meet a poacher as Angus Niel himself," said Alan, +laughing, "but I'm not afraid as long as you're with me. It's +Angus that's afraid of you, Jock says." + +Jean laughed too. "I'm not afraid when I'm in my own kitchen, but +it's different in the woods," she said. + +Alan had been nosing around among the rocks as they talked, +getting nearer and nearer to the fall, and now he suddenly +disappeared, and for a few moments Jean was quite alone in the +woods. Soon Alan reappeared from behind the fall itself and +beckoned her to follow him. + +Jean was looking at the wall of rock which loomed above them. +"Sal!" she remarked, "we'll be needing wings to get up there, or +we'll smash all the eggs for sure." + +For answer Alan popped out of sight again behind the fall, and +Jean, following closely in his wake, was just in time to catch +sight of his legs as he dived into a hole opening into the rocky +wall. The cliff from which the water plunged overhung the rocks +below in such a way that she could pass behind the veil of water +without getting wet at all. + +Into this mysterious opening behind the fall Jean followed her +leader, and found herself climbing a narrow dry channel through +which the stream had once forced its way. It was a hard, rough +scramble up a narrow passage worn by the water and through holes +almost too small to squeeze through, but at last she saw Alan's +heels just disappearing over the edge of a jutting rock and knew +they were coming out into daylight again. An instant later Alan's +head appeared in the opening, his hand reached down to help her +up, and with one last effort she came out upon an open ledge and +looked about her. + +She could not help an exclamation of delight at what she saw. The +rock was so high that they could look out over the treetops clear +to the slope where the little gray house stood. The waterfall, +plunging from a still higher level, made a barrier on one side of +them, and on the other side the cliff rose, a sheer wall of rock. +Between the wall of water and the wall of rock there was a cave +extending into the solid rock for a distance of about twenty +feet. There was absolutely no way of reaching this fastness +except through the hidden stair, and one might wander for years +through the forest and never see it at all. + +"Oh," exclaimed Jean, "it's wonderful! How Jock will love this +place! Don't you believe this very cave was used by Rob Roy and +his men?" and Alan, swelling with pride to think he had found it +all himself, said yes, he was sure of it. + +"I tell you what we'll do," cried Alan, a minute later. "We'll +just leave the basket here in the cave, and when we've found the +boys we'll come back and have our lunch here." + +They tucked the basket away out of sight on a rocky shelf in the +cave, and found their way down the steep rough stairway to the +bed of the stream again and, making a wide detour, came out above +the fall. They struggled on for nearly a mile farther still +without finding any trace of the boys, and were beginning to be +discouraged, when they saw a break in the trees with glimpses of +blue sky beyond, and a few moments later came out upon the shores +of a tiny mountain lake, shining like a beautiful blue jewel in +the dark setting of the pine trees on its banks. + +Beyond the lake the purple peaks of higher mountains made a +ragged outline against the sky. The sun was now almost directly +overhead; the waters of the lake were still, and its lovely +shores were mirrored on the placid surface. A great eagle soared +in stately circles in the deep blue sky. It was so beautiful and +so still that the children stood a moment among the rocks where +the tarn emptied itself into the mountain stream to look at it. + +"It's just the place for a water cow, or a horse maybe," Jean +whispered to Alan. + +"Sh!" was Alan's only reply. He seized Jean's hand and dragged hear +down behind a rock and pointed toward the south. There, coming out of +the woods, was a beautiful stag. It poised its noble head, and sniffed +the air, as if it suspected there might be human beings about, and +then stepped daintily to the lake-shore and bent to drink. Its lips +had scarcely touched the water when the children were startled by the +loud report of a gun. + +"Poachers," gasped Jean, hiding her face and wishing they had +never come. "Oh, where are Jock and Sandy?" Her only thought was +to make herself as small as possible and keep out of sight behind +the rocks, but Alan peered through the screen of bushes which hid +the rock and made violent gestures to Jean to make her look, too. +Jean crawled on her hands and knees to Alan's side, and when she +looked, what she saw made her so angry that she would have sprung +to her feet if Alan had not held her down with a fierce grip. The +stag was lying by the lake-shore, and a man with the muzzle of +his gun still smoking was running toward it from the woods. The +man was Angus Niel! + +Jean was so astonished that for an instant she could not believe +her own eyes. The two children flattened themselves out on their +stomachs and watched him pull a boat from its hiding-place among +some bushes on the shore, paddle quietly to the spot where the +dead stag lay, and load it swiftly into the boat. Then he raced +back to the woods again and reappeared, carrying a string of dead +rabbits. These also he crowded into the boat, and then, taking up +the oars, rowed across the lake to a landing-place on the other +side. The children watched him, scarcely breathing in their +excitement, until he had unloaded his game from the boat and +disappeared into the woods, dragging the body of the stag after +him. In a few moments he came back for the rabbits and, having +disposed of them in the same mysterious way, returned to the +boat. + +Then Jean exploded in a fierce whisper. "The old thief!" she +said, shaking her fist after him. "He's the poacher himself! +That's why he never brings any one before the bailie, though he's +always telling about catching them at it! And he making such a +fuss because Jock chased the rabbit that was eating up our +garden! Oh, oh, oh!" + +She clutched Alan and shook him in her boiling indignation. Alan +laughed and shook her back. "I didn't do it, you little +spitfire!" he whispered, and Jean moaned, "Oh, I know it, Alan, +but I can't catch him and I'm so angry I've just got to do +something to somebody." + +"Do you know what that old thief does?" said Alan. "He sends +that game down to the city--to Glasgow, or Edinburgh, or even +London, maybe--and gets a lot of money for it! No wonder he tells +big stories to make people afraid to go into the woods." + +"I hope he won't meet the boys," moaned Jean. "Jock would be sure +to let his tongue loose, and then maybe he'd shoot him too!" + +"Listen," said Alan. He gave the pewit's call and waited. It was +answered from a point so near that they were startled. They +looked in every direction but saw nothing of the boys. + +"Maybe it was a real pewit after all," whispered Jean, but just +then a tiny pebble struck Alan's cap, and, looking around in the +direction from which it came, he saw two freckled faces rise up +from behind the rock on the opposite side of the spring. + +"There they are," he said, punching Jean and pointing; "they came +up the other side of the burn." Then, making a cup of his hands, +he called across the stream, "Did you see him?" The boys nodded. +"Slip back as fast as you can down that side of the burn," Alan +said, "and we'll meet at the fall. Wait at the foot if you get +there first. We've got something to show you. Whist, and be +quick, for he'll be coming back before long, and this way like as +not." + +Jock and Sandy nodded and disappeared, and Alan and Jean, +springing from their hiding-place, hurried as fast as they could +down their side of the stream to the trysting-place. + + + + +VII. THE CLAN + + +When Jean and Alan reached the waterfall, they found Jock and Sandy +there before them. "Come over to our side," Alan called. The two boys +ran further down stream and crossed the brook on stones which stood +out of the water, and in a moment more were back again at the foot of +the fall. + +"What have you got to show us?" demanded Jock. "I hope it's +something to eat." Jock had bitterly regretted his morning +decision to find his food in the forest. The scone which Sandy +had brought from home had been divided and eaten long ago; and +all four of the children were now so hungry that they could think +of nothing else, not even of Angus Niel and their adventures by +the lake. + +Alan looked cautiously around in every direction. "Follow me, and +keep quiet tongues in your heads," he said. Then he disappeared +under the fall, and Jean instantly followed him. For a moment +Jock and Sandy were as mystified as Jean had been when Alan first +found the secret stairway, but it was not long before they, too, +saw the hole in the rock, plunged in and, following the winding +passage-way, came out upon the top of the rock. + +"There," said Alan, beaming with pride, as he displayed his +wonderful lair, "doesn't this beat Robinson Crusoe all to pieces? +If he had found a place like this on his desert island, he +wouldn't have had to build a stockade or anything." + +"It's one of the very caves where Rob Roy hid! I'm sure of it," +Jock declared with conviction, and Sandy was so overcome with +admiration that he turned a back somersault and almost upset +Jean, who was coming out of the cave with the basket on her arm. + +"You see," said Alan, "we could stay here a week if we had food +enough, and never come down at all. All we'd have to do for water +would be to hold a pan under the edge of the fall. There's no way +of getting up here except by the secret stair, and that's not +easy to find. There never was such a place for fun." + +Sandy had righted himself by this time and was gazing +ecstatically at the basket, which Jean had begun to unpack. +"Losh!" he cried. "Look, Jock! Bacon and eggs and scones! Oh, my +word!" Jock gave one look and whooped for joy. + +"Keep still," said Alan. "Angus may be coming back this way, and +he has a gun with him. We're safe enough up here, if we keep +quiet, but if you go howling around like that, he'll surely hunt +for the noise." + +For a moment they kept quiet and listened, but there was no sound +except the noise of the falling waters. "Huh!" Sandy snorted, "he +couldn't hear anything, anyway. The roar of the fall hides all +the other noises." + +"Oh, let's eat!" begged Jock, caressing his empty stomach and +gazing longingly at the food. + +"You can't eat now," said Jean; "the food must be cooked first, +and what shall we do for a fire?" + +"We could make one right here on the rock," said Alan, "if we had +something to burn. I've got matches." + +"We'll have to get twigs and dry pine-needles and broken +branches," said Jock, "and bring them up the secret stair, though +it'll be hard work getting them through the narrow places. We +ought to have a rope. We could pull a basketful up over the edge +of the rock as easy as nothing." + +"We'll bring a rope next time," said Alan. "Hurry! I'm starving!" + +The three boys disappeared down the secret stair, and while they +were gone, Jean found loose stones, with which she made a support +for the frying-pan around a space for the fire. The boys were +soon back with plenty of small fuel, and in a short time a bright +fire was blazing on the rock and there was a wonderful smell of +frying bacon in the air. The boys sat cross-legged around the +fire, while Jean turned the bacon and broke the eggs into the +sputtering fat. + +"You look just exactly like Tam watching the rabbit-hole," +laughed Jean. "I wonder you don't paw the ground and bark!" + +At last the scones were handed out, each one laden with a slice +of bacon and a fried egg, and there was blissful silence for some +moments. + +"Oh, aren't you glad you didn't die of the measles and miss +this?" Sandy said to Alan, rolling over on his back and waving +his legs in the air as he finished his third egg. Alan's mouth +was too full for a reply other than a cordial grunt. + +"Why, Sandy Crumpet!" exclaimed Jean, reprovingly, "don't you +believe heaven is nicer than Scotland?" + +"Maybe it is," Sandy admitted, doubtfully, "but I like this +better than sitting around playing on harps and trumpets the way +the angels do." + +"Sandy Crumpet played the trumpet," howled Jock in derision. +"Indeed and indeed, Sandy, I like this better than having to hear +you." Then, before Sandy could think of an answer a memory of the +catechism crossed his mind, and he added as afterthought, "How do +you ken you're one of the elect, anyway, Sandy Crumpet? If you're +not, you'd not be playing on any trumpets, or harps either, but +like as not frying in the hot place like that bacon there." + +Sandy rushed to the defense of his character. "I'm just as elect +as you are, Jock Campbell," he said. + +This time Jock had no answer ready, and Jean reproved them both. +"Shame on you!" she said. "You'll neither one of you get so much +as a taste of heaven, I doubt, and you talking like that." + +"Where will Angus Niel be going, then, when he dies?" asked Jock. +"I don't just mind whether there's a chance for thieves, but the +Bible says drunkards and such-like stand no chance at all." + +"It's not for us to judge," said Jean primly, "but I have my +opinion." + +Alan had been busily eating during this conversation, and now he +joined in. "I say," he began, "I'm not worrying about what will +become of Angus Niel after he's dead. I want to know what's going +to be done with him right now. We're the only ones that know +about this. Are we just going to keep whist, or shall we tell on +him?" + +"Let's tell on him!" shouted Sandy. + +"Who'll you be telling?" said Jean with some scorn. + +"Why, the bailie, maybe, or the Auld Laird himself," said Sandy. + +"Havers!" said Jean. "You're a braw lad to go hobnobbing with +the bailie. He'll not believe you, anyway; he's a friend of Angus +himself, and, as for the Auld Laird, how would you get hold of +him at all, and he far away in London?" + +Sandy subsided, crushed, and then Jock had a bright idea. "I tell +you what we'll do," he cried, springing to his feet. "Let's have +a clan, like Rob Roy, and we'll just badger the life out of Angus +Niel. We'll never let him know who we are, but keep kim forever +stepping and give him no rest. If he thinks somebody's following +him up all the time, he'll not sleep easy o' nights!" + +This suggestion was greeted with riotous applause. "He'd not +sleep easy if he knew Jean was after him, I'll go bail," laughed +Alan. + +"Hooray!" shouted Sandy, waving his legs frantically. "What shall +we call it?" + +"Let's call it the Rob Roy Clan," said Alan. + +"Hooray!" roared Sandy again. + +"If we're a Clan, we'll have to have a chief," said Jean, "and if +the Chief bids us do anything, we'll just have to do it. That's +the way it was in the real Rob Roy Clan. Father said so." + +"Jock thought of it first. Let him be Chief," said Alan. + +"No!" cried Jean promptly. "Are you thinking I'll put my head in +a bag like that, and he my own brother? 'Deed, I'd never get a +lick of work out of him on Saturday if I did! Na, na, lads! +Whoever's Chief, it won't be Jock." + +"Maybe you'd like to be the Chief yourself," retorted Jock, "but +it's enough to be bossed by you at home! Besides, whoever heard +of a girl being Chief, anyway?" + +"Alan can be Chief," said Jean, and so the matter was settled. + +"If I'm Chief," said Alan, "you'll all have to swear an oath of +fealty to me." + +"What's an oath of fealty?" Jock demanded suspiciously, and Jean +added in a shocked voice, "Alan, you'd never be asking us to take +the name of the Lord in vain!" + +"It's not that kind of an oath," laughed Alan. "You just have to +vow to obey the Chief in everything." Then an idea popped into +his head. "In a real Clan they are all kinsmen, but here's Sandy, +and he's neither Campbell nor McGregor. We'll have to make a +blood brother of him before he can join." + +"What's a blood brother? How do you make 'em?" asked Sandy. + +"I'll show you," said Alan. He drew his knife from his pocket and +while the other three watched him in breathless admiration, he +made a little cut in his wrist and immediately passed the knife +to Jock. "You do the same," he commanded. + +Jock obeyed his Chief and passed the knife to Jean, who promptly +followed his example. + +"Now, Sandy," said Alan. + +Sandy hated the sight of blood, and he was a little pale under +his freckles as he shut his eyes and jabbed himself gingerly with +the point. Then Alan took a drop of blood from each wrist and +mingled them with a drop from Sandy's. + +"Now, Sandy," he said, as he stirred the compound into a gory +paste, "you repeat after me, 'My foot is on my native heath, my +name it is McGregor.'" Sandy obeyed with solemnity, and, this +important ceremony over, Alan pronounced him a member of the Clan +in good and regular standing. + +Then, by the Chief's orders, Jean, Jock, and Sandy, each in turn +placed their hands under Alan's hand, while they promised to obey +him without question in all matters pertaining to the Clan. + +"Only," said Jean, "you mustn't tell us to do anything wrong." + +"I won't," promised Alan. And so the Rob Roy Clan came into +being. + +Alan took command at once. "We must have a sign," he said. "Just +like Clan Alpine in 'The Lady of the Lake.' Go, my henchmen," he +cried, striking a noble attitude, and waving his hand toward the +forest, "bring hither sprays of the Evergreen Pine, and we'll +stick 'em in our bonnets just like Roderick Dhu and his men. +Roderick Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! iero!" + +The two boys instantly disappeared down the hole in the rock on +this errand, leaving Jean and Alan to guard the cave. + + + + +VIII. THE POACHERS + + +While all these things were happening, Angus Niel had returned +from his errand across the little lake, and was making his way +slowly toward home, following the course of the stream. As he +came near the fall he stopped and sniffed. There was certainly a +most appetizing smell of bacon in the air! + +"It can't be!" he said aloud to himself. He sniffed again, and +his face turned purple with rage. "Meat," he snorted, "as I live! +The bold rascals! Poaching in broad daylight and cooking their +game right under my nose!" It wasn't under his nose at all, of +course, for the rock was far above him, and it wasn't game +either. + +"I'll soon cure them of that trick," he muttered, as he climbed +silently over the rocks and gazed searchingly about. It was not +long before he caught sight of a thin curl of blue smoke rising +from the top of the rock. + +"Aha!" he growled under his breath, "I've got you now, my bold +gentlemen! I'll teach you to flaunt your thefts in the face of +the Laird's own gamekeeper, once I get my hands on you!" At once +he began nosing about the rocks in search of the path by which +the poachers had climbed the cliff. + +Meanwhile Sandy and Jock had found the sprays of the Evergreen +Pine and were on their way back to the cave with them, when Jock +suddenly seized Sandy by the arm and ducked down behind a +boulder. There, not a hundred feet away, stood Angus Niel gazing +up at the top of the rock! His back was toward them, and the +noise of the waterfall had drowned out the sound of voices, or +they surely would not have escaped his notice. As it was, they +slipped behind the fall, whisked into the hole, and began +climbing the secret stair like two frightened squirrels. An +instant later they startled Alan and Jean, who were in the cave, +by dashing in after them on all fours. + +"What on earth is the matter?" cried Jean. + +"Matter, indeed!" gasped Jock, out of breath. "Angus Niel is down +there, and he's seen the smoke! He almost saw us, but we just +gave him the slip and got by." + +"Keep out of sight, all of you," commanded the Chief, "and leave +him to me." + +The obedient Clan flattened themselves against the back of the +cave, while Alan crept to the edge of the rock on his stomach +like a lizard, and, lying there, was able to peep through the +thick screen of leaves and see what was going on below. The +gamekeeper was still scrambling over the rocks and looking, as +Alan said afterward, "for all the world like a dog who had lost +the trail and was trying to find it again." + +As the lookout was well screened, Alan soon allowed the rest of +the Clan to join him, and Angus Niel little guessed, as he +prowled about over the rocks, that every move was watched from +above. Despairing of finding the path, he decided at last to get +up a tree and make an observation. He selected a large pine which +grew near the cave and began to climb. + +So long as he stood on the ground, the children knew it was +impossible for Angus to see them, but when he began to climb, +they scuttled back into the cave as fast as they could go. + +Climbing is hard work for a fat man, and the gamekeeper found +himself covered with pitch before he had gone more than halfway +up, but he puffed on in spite of difficulties and at last reached +a point from which he could look directly across the surface of +the rock, but from which the cave was entirely hidden behind a +projection in the wall of the cliff. + +Angus saw what he supposed to be the whole shelf of the rock, and +he saw that there was no one there. He could see the fire and the +frying-pan, the egg shells lying about, and even the portion of +bacon that Jean had not cooked. They were all in full view, but +apparently the poachers had gone away into the woods, leaving +their airy camp deserted. There was no one there; of that he +felt, certain. + +"I'll just give'em a surprise," thought the gamekeeper to +himself. "If they found a way up, I can, too. I'll help myself to +a snack of that bacon, and if they come back and find me--well, I +have my gun with me and I don't like being interrupted at my +meals." + +He backed down the tree like a fat cat, and made a desperate +search for the path, and this time he actually succeeded in +finding it. He chuckled to himself as he plunged into the passage +and began to climb. He had gone about a third of the way up, when +he reached the narrowest point of the channel and tried to force +himself through, but the space was so small that no matter how +much he tried, he could not get by. His gun was in his way too, +but he could not leave it below, as that would be putting it into +the hands of the poachers if they should return too soon. + +In vain he twisted and squirmed, he could get no farther, and +moreover he was afraid the gun might go off by accident in his +struggles. When he found that he could not possibly go up, he +decided to go down; but he found, to his horror, that he couldn't +do that either. There he stuck, and an angrier man than Angus +Niel it would have been hard to find. A projecting rock punched +him in the stomach, and when he pressed back against the rock +behind him, to free himself, he scraped the skin off his back. +Casting prudence to the winds, he howled with pain and rage, and +the sound, carried up through the narrow passage, echoed in the +cave like the roar of a lion. + +The children, meanwhile, had kept in hiding, and when they heard +these blood-curdling sounds, they at first did not know what +caused them, because, of course, they could not see what was +happening below, but they knew very soon that they were not made +by a wild animal because wild animals do not swear. + +"It's Angus, stuck in the secret stairway," Alan said, smothering +his laughter. "He's too fat to get through!" He crept to the edge +and peeped down the hole. There, far below, he could see the top +of Angus's head and the muzzle of his gun. + +The Chief was a boy of great presence of mind. He backed hastily +away from the hole and ran to the fall, snatching up the pan as +he passed. This he filled with water and, rushing back, he +instantly sent a small deluge down upon the head of the hapless +Angus. + +The gamekeeper was dumbfounded by this new attack. Had he not +with his own eyes seen that the rocky shelf was empty? How, then, +could this thing be? He rolled his eyes upward, but there was no +one in sight. He had heard all his life tales of witches and +water cows, of spells cast upon people by fairies, of their being +borne away by them into mountain caverns and held as prisoners +for years and years; and he made up his mind that such a fate had +now befallen him. + +Firmly convinced that he was the victim of enchantment, he became +palsied with terror, arid began to plead with the unseen +tormentors who he believed held him in thrall. "Only leave me +loose, dear good little people," he howled, "and I'll never, +never trouble you more!" + +At this point Alan, shaking with mirth, sent down another panful +of water, and Angus, redoubling his efforts, wrenched himself +free, scraping off quantities of skin as he did so. They could +hear him scuttling down the secret stair as fast as his legs +would carry him, and when he emerged below, they watched him +hurry away through the forest, casting fearful glances over his +shoulder as he ran. Alan made a hollow of his two hands and sent +after him a wild note, like the wailing of a banshee. + +"Angus Niel, Angus Niel," rose the piercing note, "bring back my +beautiful stag, my stag that lived by the tarn!" + +As the sound reached his ears, Angus redoubled his speed, and +they could hear him crashing through the underbrush as if the +devil himself were really at his heels. + +When the sounds died away in the distance, the Rob Roy Clan +rolled on the floor of the cave with laughter. + +"There!" said Alan, as he sat up and wiped his eyes. "That'll fix +Angus Niel! We've scared him out of a year's growth, and he'll +never dare meddle with this place again. Come on, now. It's time +to go home, but to-morrow we'll come back and fix this place up +in a way that would make Robinson Crusoe green with envy." + +They carefully put water on the ashes of their fire, stuck the +sprigs of Evergreen Pine in their bonnets, and sped down the +secret stairway and home. + + + + +IX. A RAINY DAY + + +The next morning, as she was finishing the beds, Jean heard the +pewit call and at once knew that the Clan was abroad. She ran to +the door, and the three boys came in together,--Jock from the +garden, where he had been pulling weeds in the potato-patch, and +Sandy and Alan from the road. They were carrying a large basket, +and Sandy was laden down with a coil of rope in addition. + +"What have you got there?" demanded Jean. + +"Stores for the Cave," said Alan, "and a rope to let down from +the rock. Come on; let's go as soon as we can, for it looks like +rain and we've got a lot to do to get the cave ready for wet +weather." + +"Where did you get 'em?" asked Jock, eyeing the basket with +interest and wondering what was inside. + +"Oh," said Alan, "I just asked Eppie. She lets me have anything I +want. My mother told her to stuff me while I'm here, and if I +take the food off to the woods with me she doesn't have to cook +it at home, so she's suited, and I am, too." + +Jean hastily gathered together a few cooking utensils, and a few +minutes later the four set forth, carrying the provisions and wearing +proudly in their bonnets the sprig of pine, the insignia of the Clan. +The sky was downcast and the woods seemed dark and gloomy as they +made their way toward the waterfall. + +"What'll we do if it rains?" cried Sandy. "It's no such fine +thing just sitting still in a cave." + +"I've a plan in my head," said the Chief. "Wait and see." + +As they reached the fall, Alan sent Sandy and Jock to gather +wood, while Jean guarded the basket at the foot of the rock and +he himself darted up the secret stairway with the rope. From the +top he let down the rope and Jean fastened it through the handles +of the basket. Alan then drew it up, emptied the contents, and +sent back the basket for the wood which Sandy and Jock had by +that time collected. + +They all worked as swiftly as possible, for the woods were +growing darker and darker every minute and they could now hear +the roll of thunder above the noise of the waterfall. They had +gathered and sent up six basketfuls, when the rain came splashing +down in earnest, and the Clan scrambled up the secret stair and +into the cave for shelter. Alan had piled the wood in the cave as +fast as he had pulled it up, and there was now a fine pile of dry +fuel. + +"Sandy, you build the fire," commanded the Chief, seating himself +on the wood-pile. + +"The rain will put it out," said Sandy. + +"Make it in the cave," said Alan. + +"Then the smoke will put us out," cried Jean. + +"Try it and see," said Alan. "We can't have lunch without a fire, +for I've brought mealy puddings." + +"Mealy puddings!" cried Sandy, licking his lips, and he went to +work with a will. Fortunately the wind blew from the east, so +they were not absolutely choked by the smoke, and soon the fire +was burning briskly; making a spot of flaming color against the +dark background of the cave. Jock ran to the fall and filled the +pan with water, and soon the mealy puddings were bobbing merrily +about in the boiling water, while the boys, snug and safe in the +shelter of the cave, watched the boughs of the pine trees swaying +in the wind and waited for Jean to tell them that dinner was +ready. She could cook but one thing at a time over the fire, but +it was not long before the feast was spread, and they fell to +with appetites that caused the food to disappear like dew before +the morning sun. + +"Losh!" said Sandy, rolling over with his feet to the fire, when +he could eat no more, "I thought you said you had a rainy day +plan, Chief." + +"So I have," said Alan, drawing a little book from his pocket. +"I'm going to read to you." + +Sandy glanced at the book. "Not poetry, Chief!" he said with +alarm. "Surely you don't mean that!" + +"It isn't just poetry," said Alan. "It's a story about Roderick +Dhu and Clan Alpine, and hunting deer in these very mountains. +You'll like it, I know." + +Sandy groaned and laid his head on his arm. "Go ahead," he said +with resignation. "You're the Chief and I can't help myself." + +"I'll be washing up the dishes while you read," said Jean. + +"Blaze away," said Jock, who loved books as much as he disliked +work. + +"It's 'The Lady of the Lake,'" Alan began. + +"Oh!" snorted Sandy, to whom Walter Scott was scarcely more than +a name, "I thought it was about fighting and robbers, and things +like that, and here it's about a lady! and it's about love too, I +doubt! I wonder at you, Alan McRae!" + +Alan made no reply but began to read. When he reached a line +about "Beauty's matchless eye," Sandy snored insultingly and was +promptly kicked by Jock. But when Alan reached the lines + + "The stag at eve had drunk his fill + Where danced the moon on Monan's rill," + +Sandy sat up and began to think the despised poem might amount to +something after all. Jean had finished the dishes by this time +and sat cross-legged with her chin in her hand, staring into the +fire, as Alan read how the splendid stag pursued by hunters, + + "Like crested leader proud and high + Tossed his beamed frontlet to the sky; + A moment gazed adown the dale, + A moment snuffed the tainted gale," + +Then she cried out, "Michty me! It's just exactly like the stag +we saw Angus Niel shoot by the tarn; isn't it, now, Alan?" + +"And Benvoirlich is the very mountain we can see far away to the +south from our house," interrupted Jock, when Alan reached that +part of the poem. + +"Did the hunters get the stag?" demanded Sandy, and "Go on with +the tale," shouted all three. Alan read on and on by the +flickering light of the fire, and so absorbed were they all in +the story of the region they knew and loved so dearly that a +shaft of sunlight from the west shot across the cave, lighting up +the gloomy corners, before they realized that the day was far +gone and the rain had stopped. + +"It's time to go home," said Jean. "The sun is low in the west, +and Father and Tam will be coming back wet and hungry from the +hills, and no broth hot." + +They packed the remainder of their supper carefully away in the +basket and left it in the corner of the cave behind the wood-pile, +put out every spark of the fire, and picked their way carefully +down the wet chasm to the ground. + +"Hark," said Jock, as they started home. Faraway in the distance +there was the frantic barking of a dog. They stopped and +listened. + +"It's Tam," said Jean, with conviction, "and he's after +something. It's either the rabbit or else he's found a weasel +hole," and instantly all the children were off at a bound, +tearing through the woods in the direction of the sound. They had +been, having such a good time they had not once thought of Angus +Niel, but as they reached the edge of the forest, there he was, +standing behind a tree with his gun pointing toward the little +gray house! They stopped short in their wild race and instantly +hid themselves among the trees. They could see Tam barking and +pawing the ground with the greatest excitement in the open field +which lay between the forest and the garden-patch. + +"Tam's after the rabbit as sure as sure," Jock whispered to Alan, +who had crept with him underneath a spreading pine. "That's the +very place where he went after him before. If that old thief +kills Tam, I'll--I'll--" Jock could think of no fit punishment +for such a crime, and in his rage and excitement would have run +right out into the open, after the dog if Alan had not held him +by his jacket. "Let go--let go!" said Jock, struggling to get +away. "I tell you, if he shoots that dog." + +Just then a brown flash appeared from the garden wall, and Tam +was after it at a bound, barking like mad. "It's the rabbit, and +he's got him--he's got him!" murmured Jock, bouncing up and down +with excitement with Alan still clinging to his coat. "Good old +dog! good old Tam!" He was watching the dog so intently that he +did not see Angus take careful aim, but the moment Tam reached +the rabbit, seized it in his teeth, and shook it, a shot rang +out; and the dog, with a howl of pain, dropped the rabbit and ran +yelping toward the house on three legs, holding the fourth one in +the air. + +Angus immediately ran out from his hiding-place, leaped the +brook, and, dashing up the slope toward the house, picked up the +dead rabbit and ran with it back into the woods. The children +watched him as he fled, and, the moment he was out of sight, they +burst from the shelter of the woods and tore up the hillside to +the little gray house. + +They found Tam sitting on the doorstep licking his paw and +howling. He was instantly surrounded by four amateur doctors all +anxious to relieve his pain. Jock ran for water to wash his leg, +the flesh of which had been cruelly torn open by the bullet. Jean +ransacked the kist for bandages, and Alan held up the injured paw +and tried to see if any bones were broken, while Sandy helplessly +stroked Tam's tail, murmuring, "Good dog! good old Tam!" as he +did so. By dint of their combined efforts the wound was cleansed +and carefully bound with a rag, and by the time the Shepherd got +home, Tam was lying on the hearth beside the fire, with Alan on +his knees before him feeding him broth from a pan. + +The Shepherd listened with a darkening brow to the story of Tam's +injury. He had heard an account of the stag the day before, so +the new revelation of Angus's character did not surprise him, but +when Alan rose from his knees and said, "To-morrow the Rob Roy +Clan will begin to make Angus Niel wish he'd never been born," +Robin Campbell's comment was, "Give him rope enough and he'll +hang himself, laddie," and Alan, his black eyes flashing with +understanding, answered, "We'll see to it that he gets the rope." + + + + +X. ON THE TRAIL + + +Alan and Sandy left the little gray house in the late afternoon +and walked together down the river road toward the village. At +the bridge which spanned the stream they parted company, and Alan +gave Sandy final instructions as to his duties on the next day. +He was to watch Angus Niel's house, which lay some distance north +of the village, and see what direction he took as he started upon +his daily tour in the forests. + +The estate of Glencairn covered a territory so large that Angus +could not by any possibility make his rounds in one day or even +in one week. The Clan knew well where he had spent his time for +the two preceding days, and they thought he would be likely to +start in a different direction on the morrow. They did not dare +count upon his doing so, however, and so Sandy was detailed to +give a positive report as to his movements. The next morning, +therefore, found Sandy sitting on a stone dyke not a great way +from Angus's house, apparently absorbed in whittling and +whistling, but in reality keeping a sharp lookout for any sign of +life in the Niel household. He had not long to wait before he saw +Angus leave the house and wander away into the forest with his +gun on his shoulder. As they had surmised, he took a direction +entirely different from his route of the two days before. + +Sandy waited until he was out of sight, and then hurried back to +the bridge, where he met Alan by appointment, and the two walked +briskly on to the little gray house together. When they reached +it, the wag-at-the-wall clock was just striking nine, and Jean, +her morning work done, was "caning" the hearth with blue chalk as +a final touch of elegance to her clean kitchen. + +"Come on," said Alan. "I've a plan in my head, and we'll have to +start directly if we're going to carry it out. Let me have some +of that blue chalk, Jean; we may need it. I've got plenty of food +with me, so don't wait to put up anything." + +"I'm with you," said Jean, giving a final flourish with the blue +chalk before she clapped on her bonnet, and in another minute the +Rob Roy Clan was afoot, leaving Tam nursing his wounded paw on +the doorstep and gazing after them with pathetic eyes. + +They left their luncheon in the cave and hurried on at Alan's +command to the little mountain tarn where Angus had killed the +stag, and there the Clan gathered about him to hear his plan. + +"I've been thinking about this," Alan began, "and I'm sure of two +things. Angus must have a place where he puts the game he kills, +and he must have somebody to help him. The other man comes along +and carries it down the mountain to some point where he can ship +it to the city. I say, let's find out where that hiding-place +is." + +"What will we do with it when we find it?" asked Jean. + +"That's where the blue chalk comes in," said Alan. "We'll let him +know we've been there!" + +"You'll never be writing your name there?" asked Sandy anxiously. +"He'd be shooting us next!" + +"Oh! Sandy, you're a daft body," said Jean, and Jock added: "Mind +the Chief, you dunderhead, and keep your tongue behind your +teeth. He's none so addled as you think!" + +Sandy subsided a little sulkily, and Alan went on. + +"When Angus crossed the lake with the stag he landed right over +there by that dead pine tree, for I watched him to see, and the +place where he hid the stag can't be far from there, because he +came back so soon. We'll just take his boat and see if we can't +find it." + +"Oh!" gasped Jean, who had never been in a boat in her life, "do +you know how to make it go?" + +"I can row and I can swim," said Alan, "but I tell you if any one +goes bouncing around in the boat, it will be just as bad as being +bewitched by the water cow, you'll go to the bottom!" + +"I can row, too," said Sandy. + +Jean wished she hadn't come, but she was bound she would not show +it before the boys, so she said, "Sal! who's afraid?" and when +they found the boat, she was the first one in it. + +Angus was so sure that no one would find his boat, which was +carefully screened by the bushes, that he had not even hidden the +oars. So it was soon afloat with Jock at the tiller, Sandy on the +bottom, Jean in the prow holding to the sides of the boat, +scarcely daring to speak for fear of upsetting it, and Alan at +the oars. The lake was smooth, and they reached the opposite +shore without mishap, except that twice Alan "caught a crab" and +splashed water all over Jock, and Sandy filled both shoes as he +jumped out of the boat. They pulled it up under the shelter of +the dead pine, anchored it by a stone, and cautiously made their +way into the woods. + +They were now in a very wild section of the mountains, where it +seemed as if no one had ever been since the beginning of the +world. + +"Just hear the stillness," whispered Jean, keeping close to Jock. +There was a sort of trail leading back into the woods, which +looked as if it might have been made by wild animals going to the +lake for a drink. This they followed for some distance until it +became indistinct, and then Alan called the Clan together for +counsel. + +"We'll go just a little farther," he said, "and then, if we don't +see any sign of the place, it may be best to go back, for it is +easy to get lost in these woods. We are going east now and +luckily the sun is shining. When we do turn back, we must keep +the sun behind us and we can't help coming out somewhere on the +lake. Remember the pewit call if we lose sight of each other." + +They resumed their stealthy walk through the woods, and a few +rods farther on came to a wide open space which sloped eastward +for some distance down the mountain-side. Here they paused. + +"We're getting a good way from the boat," said Jean. + +"Yes," said Alan, "and I am just wondering whether we'd better go any +farther. We don't want to cross this open space, and I see no sign of +Angus's storehouse. I hate to give up, though, for we must be very +near it." He searched in every direction with his eyes, and suddenly +exclaimed under his breath, "Look there!" + +"Where?" breathed the Clan, rigid with excitement. + +"Do you see that pile of rocks?" said Alan, pointing into the +woods beyond the clearing. + +"Yes," said Jock, "but there are rocks all around. I don't see +that they're any different from others." + +"Maybe not," said Alan, "but I see something that looks like the +corner of a hunter's shelter sticking out behind that big +boulder, and I say, let's skirt around this open place and see." + +"Do you want us all to go?" asked Sandy, hoping the Chief would +say no. + +"You stay here," Alan answered, to his great relief, "and Jean, +you come a little farther with us. Then you and Sandy can keep +out of sight and watch. If you see a man, keep still in your +places and give the pewit call. Jock and I will go on around the +clearing and get a better look at those rocks." + +Sandy crouched down in the bracken, and two or three hundred feet +farther on Jean stopped also, while Alan and Jock cautiously +crept on toward their goal, and, by making a wide detour, +approached the rocks from the north instead of the west. As they +neared them, it was plain that Alan was right. There really was a +shelter built against an overhanging rock and almost concealed +from view by pine boughs which formed a screen before it. Little +by little the boys crept nearer and nearer, stopping every few +steps to be sure there was no sign of life about the place. At +last they were within a few feet of the rude camp. The shelter +was scarcely more than a hole under the rocks, but there was a +blackened spot where there had been a fire, a few pans were +standing about, and in one corner a pile of evergreen boughs was +covered with well-cured deer-skins. A fresh hide ready to cure +was spread out on the rocks near by. + +"This is the place," whispered Jock. "There is the skin of the +stag. Now what are you going to do?" For answer Alan slipped from +behind the rocks, crept stealthily into the camp, and on the +underside of the rock wrote in big letters with blue chalk + + ANGUS NIEL + POACHER + Your sin has found you out! + R. R. C. + +Then he crawled swiftly back out of sight and, followed by Jock, +made his way as fast as he could toward Jean's hiding-place. To +Jean the time that they were gone seemed hours long. The place +was lonely, and she was afraid, not only of their finding the man +at home in his wild lodge, but even of brownies and elves. + +A rabbit stuck his ears up over a nearby log and scuttled away +when he saw her. The leaves made a lonely sound as they rustled +over her head, and when at last she saw a black object moving +about among the trees at some distance beyond the rock-pile, it +is not surprising that she immediately gave the pewit call, loud +and clear. + +The boys heard it and instantly vanished behind some bushes. The +dark object moving among the trees seemed to hear it too and, +springing forward, came bounding toward the rocks, barking as it +came. Jean was not much less anxious when she knew for certain +that it was a dog, for a watch dog in that lonely place might be +quite as dangerous as a wolf. Moreover, she soon saw, a little +distance behind the dog, a man with a gun on his shoulder. She +saw the dog reach the camp and go sniffing about on the rocks, +and her heart almost stood still as it gave a deep howl and +started away as if it scented game. + +"He's on the trail of Alan and Jock," thought Jean, wringing her +hands. "Oh, what shall I do? The man will surely follow, for +he'll think the dog is after game." She sprang to her feet and +ran back to Sandy. + +"Come quick," she said in a low voice. "The dog smells them; we +must get into the boat and have it ready for the boys to jump +into. There is not a moment to lose." She sped past him as she +spoke, and Sandy came galloping after. + +Alan and Jock, who had seen and heard all that Jean had, were now +tearing at top speed through the woods and knew from answering +whistles that Jean and Sandy were on the way to the boat. + +The man had by this time reached the camp and was staring at the +blue chalk-marks on the rock, as if unable to believe his own +eyes. He did not stop there long. He saw at once that an enemy +had found his hiding-place, and that the dog was on his trail. +Leaping down the rocks, he started across the clearing on a run +toward the lake, his gun in his hand. Jock and Alan realized that +they could hardly reach the landing-place before the dog did, so +they changed their course and veered a little to the north, +thinking that in this way they stood more chance of concealment +and that they could signal the boat and get aboard in a less +conspicuous place. + +By this dodge the dog lost the scent of the boys and, nosing the +ground, found the trail of Sandy and Jean. Baying frightfully he +came bounding through the underbrush and arrived at the landing +just in time to see Sandy push the boat from the shore with Jean +in the bow. Furious at being cheated of his prey, the dog ran +back and forth on the shore, making mad leaps in the direction of +the boat and barking as if possessed. + +"Oh, where are the boys?" cried the distracted Jean. They +lingered in an agony of suspense, not daring to leave until they +saw that Jock and Alan were safe, and then from a little distance +up the shore came the pewit call. Sandy rose to the emergency +and, pulling frantically at the oars, succeeded in reaching the +point from which the call seemed to come. The scared faces of +Jock and Alan rose from the bracken, and in another moment they +had leaped into the boat, nearly upsetting it as they did so. +Alan seized an oar, and he and Sandy together got the boat out of +sight behind a bend in the shore. Here they hid among the bushes +on the bank until they saw the man appear at the landing-place, +scan the lake carefully, and then go back into the woods, calling +the dog to go with him. Even then they were afraid to stir for +they did not know whether he had gone back to camp or was +stalking about among the trees searching for them. + +They waited for what seemed a week but saw nothing further of the +man, and when at last they heard the report of a gun and the +barking of a dog far away down the mountain, they felt safe. He +was evidently looking in another direction for the intruders, and +at once Alan gave the word to go back to their own side of the +lake. They skirted the shores, keeping a sharp lookout all the +while, and at length reached the landing-place. The weary members +of the Clan breathed a sigh of relief as they found themselves +safe on their own ground again, arid their spirits rose. + +Jock told what Alan had written on the rock, and Alan was so much +impressed by that achievement that he took out the blue chalk and +on a rock by the tarn wrote "Here Angus Niel, gamekeeper +and poacher, shot a stag"; and on the stone where the boat had +been, he put the mystic initials "R. R. C." + +"There," said Alan, pausing to admire his handiwork, "that'll +keep him guessing, and scared too." + +"What can we do next?" + +"Take away his boat," said Jean promptly. + +"Good idea!" cried Alan. + +"Where can we hide it?" asked Jock. + +"I'm mortal hungry," said Sandy. "Couldn't we eat first?" + +"No food until this job is done," said the Chief firmly. "We'll +never have another chance when we know where the other man and +Angus both are. It's now or never!" + +"But where shall we hide it?" demanded Jock again. + +"I'll tell you," cried Jean, her eyes dancing with mischief. "We +can carry it to the burn and float it down to the cave!" + +This was a stroke of genius, no less, and every member of the +Clan looked upon Jean with respect bordering upon awe. At the +point where the lake emptied into the burn there were loose +rocks, about which the water rushed in a swift cataract, but, +below, the current flowed more gently toward the fall. It was +deep only in spots where the trout loved to hide, but it was not +a stream anywhere in its course upon which one would launch a +boat for pleasure. The rocks were so near the surface that the +weight of even one person might ground it, but afloat and empty +it might be carried clear to the rocks above the cave. The Clan +considered the plan carefully, standing upon the rocky banks. + +"How would we guide it?" asked Sandy doubtfully. + +"There's a rope on the end of the boat," said Jean promptly, "and +we could push it off with sticks if it got stuck." + +"Come on," cried Alan, and the four plotters rushed bask to the +lake and pulled the boat out of the water. Alan took the prow and +Jock took the stern, while Sandy and Jean supported it on each +side, and in this way, after many struggles, they succeeded in +carrying it to a place below the rapids where they dared launch +it. + +"I'll hold the rope," said Alan, "and you, Sandy, take an oar and +go down the other side of the stream, so you can push it off if +it gets stuck on that side." + +"How'll I get across?" asked Sandy. + +This was a poser at first, but Alan found a way. + +"Get into the boat," he said, "and we'll push it across where +there aren't any stones sticking up. You can pole it across with +your oar, and I'll keep hold of the rope." + +Sandy jumped in at once, and the boat, in spite of some swirling, +was finally near enough to the opposite bank so he could jump +out. This he did, taking the oar with him. It was an exciting +journey down stream, for the boat bumped against rocks and caught +on fallen trees, and it was a good hour before the children, +tired out but triumphant, finally dragged it out of the water +just above the falls. + +"If we had our rope, we could drag it to the edge of the cliff +and let it down in front of the cave," cried Jean in another +flash of inspiration, and Sandy instantly rushed down the rock, +made the necessary detour, and climbed the secret stair to the +cave. He then whistled, and three heads appeared over the top of +the cliff. + +"I'll throw up the rope and when you let the boat down, I'll +steady it," said Sandy. + +"Heave away," cried Alan, and after a few trials the rope came +flying up on the cliff and was soon looped around the boat. Then +the three braced their feet against the rocks and slowly lowered +the boat by the rope fastened to the prow, and by their own rope, +while Sandy steadied it below. They threw down the rope-end after +it, and a few moments later the rapturous Clan hauled the boat +into the cave! They sat in it to eat their luncheon and were so +lost in admiration of their enterprise and their booty that they +did not start home until the level rays of the sun warned them +that it was late. + + + + +XI. ANGUS NIEL AND THE CANNY CLAN + + +The days that followed were days of stirring adventure to the Rob +Roy Clan, and days of continuous and surprising misery to Angus +Niel. Never in his history as gamekeeper of Glen Cairn had he +had such experiences. The very trees in the woods seemed to be +bewitched. Wherever he went he was followed by some mysterious +power that seemed to know his every movement. If he killed any +game, the fact was advertised and the place marked by signs in +blue chalk. Not only that, but the very path of his approach to +the spot was marked by pointing arrows and some such legend as +"This way to the glen where Angus Niel killed a deer" would +decorate a neighboring rock. On other rocks appeared pertinent +questions addressed to him. "How much did you get for the stag?" +was one of them, and there were also queries as to where he found +the best market for game. He was kept so busy searching the +forest for these incriminating signs and rubbing them out, that +he could not follow his regular rounds. Even this did not avail, +for if he erased them on one day, it was but a matter of time +before the letters appeared again as fresh and blue as ever. Nor +was this all. He was haunted by a wailing voice which reached him +even in the remote fastnesses of the forest. He was sure to hear +it if he ventured into the neighborhood of the waterfall, and he +usually avoided that region as if it harbored a pestilence. + +Once late in the afternoon he shot two hares and hid them under +some rocks, intending to carry them across the lake in the +morning, but when he went for them, they had disappeared +altogether, and above the place where they had been was written +in blue chalk, "Sacred to the memory of two hares, killed and +hidden here by Angus Niel on June 12th." + +When he saw this epitaph, Angus's hair really stood on end with +fright, and on the day he found that the boat was gone, leaving +no trace, he became absolutely terror-stricken. He sought for it +behind every rock and in every likely nook about the lake, +consuming days in the quest, and was appalled on his next trip +thither to find all the incidents of his search faithfully +recorded on the rocks, each one signed with the mystic initials +R. R. C. + +It took ingenuity, persistence, and some degree of danger on the part +of the clan to accomplish these things, but one could depend upon +finding these qualities in any Campbell or McGregor, and Sandy, having +been made a blood brother, faithfully lived up to the duties it +entailed. He became an expert detective and sleuth-hound, discovering +and reporting Angus's movements each day to the enterprising Clan and +its resourceful Chief. + +At Alan's suggestion, the Clan took for its motto "We must be +canny," and canny they certainly were. They even changed their +programme from day to day, and in this way just when Angus felt +he was about to discover his tormentors and know if they were +human and not witches, they found some new method of annoyance +and he was all at sea again. + +Once they gave him a respite of nearly a week and Angus, having +erased many signs and finding no new ones, was beginning to think +his troubles were over, when suddenly arrows bearing bits of +paper inviting him to visit the fall would suddenly drop at his +feet. It had taken the Clan nearly all their spare time for the +week to make the bows and arrows, by which this wonder was +accomplished. Meanwhile they had lived like lords, feasting upon +trout and the generous store of provisions with which Alan +continued to supply the cave. They even began to see how it was +possible for Rob Roy and his men to live upon forest fare, for +the pool below the fall was a wonderful fishing-hole, and small +game was plentiful if they had cared to become poachers +themselves. + +On one red-letter day, they roasted the two hares which Angus had +killed, and cooked potatoes in the ashes. Each day was filled +with fresh adventures, and the wild outdoor life agreed with +Alan so well that his thin cheeks began to fill out and glow with +healthy color and it was not long before he looked as sturdy and +strong as Jock himself. + +It was curious that what Alan gained in flesh and spirits, Angus +Niel at the same time seemed to lose. He was so worried by these +strange visitations that his round eyes took on a haunted +expression, and Sandy observed that he kept looking over his +shoulder as if he thought some one were following him, even when +he walked the village streets. + +He dared not stay away from the forest lest others should +discover the dreadful blue signs before he did, and at the same +time he was afraid to go in. He swung like a pendulum between +these two difficulties and grew daily more nervous and unhappy. +By the end of June he had lost ten pounds of flesh as well as the +money he might have made out of poaching and selling the game. By +the middle of July he was so haggard that people began to remark +on his appearance. There seemed no way out of his troubles but to +lie about them, and soon wild stories were circulated through the +village about the haunted forest and its dangers. + +Women were warned not to let the children stray into the woods lest +they be carried away by witches or water cows, and it was also +reported that a gang of poachers of a particularly blood-thirsty +character infested the region, carrying off game and property and +leaving no trace. Angus had been watching this band of desperadoes for +some time, he said, and knew there were at least twenty of them who +would stop at nothing. + +With Angus's tale of the mysterious loss of his boat, the +excitement reached a climax, and there was talk of organizing an +armed band of men from the village to protect the woods and rid +the neighborhood of the bandits. The people were surprised that +Angus himself should oppose this plan, but as he was gamekeeper +and in authority, the matter was dropped. To Angus's horror, +however, these rumors and events were all faithfully recorded on +rocks not far from his own home soon after, and he realized that +to the very doors of his own house he was pursued by the same +mysterious and vigilant power. It was then that he lost his +appetite, and if the Clan could have followed him into his home +and seen him look under his bed before he got into it at night, +their joy would have been full. + +The wild stories he told had the effect of keeping every one else +out of the forest and made the Clan more than ever free to stalk +their prey without fear of discovery. In this occupation several +exciting weeks passed by, and then there came an unhappy surprise +to the Clan, and it was not Angus Niel who sprang it upon them +either. + +One morning in late July, Alan came up the road toward the little +gray house, where he was now so much at home, looking very glum +indeed. Sandy was with him, wearing a face as solemn as a funeral +procession. Jock and Jean saw them coming and hailed them with a +shout, and Tam, who had not quite recovered from his injury, came +dashing down the brae on three legs to greet them. Even Tam's +joyful bark did not lift the shadow from their faces. + +Jean cried out from the top of the brae, "Whatever can be the +matter with you? You're looking as miserable as two hens in a +rainstorm!" + +"Trouble enough," answered Sandy, and Jean and Jock at once came +hurrying down the slope to hear the bad news. They met at the +river-side, and Sandy, who was bursting to tell it, cried out, +"What do you think? Alan's got to go home! His mother's sent for +him!" One look at Alan's melancholy face confirmed this dreadful +statement and the gloom instantly became general. + +The Clan sat down on the ground in a depressed circle to discuss +the matter and its bearing on their plans. + +"Don't you think your mother would let you stay if you should ask +her?" suggested Jock. + +"No," said Alan, with sad conviction. "She said I was to come at +once, and I'll have to start this very afternoon. I'm to drive +down to the boat and get to Glasgow by water; I'll spend the +night there and go on to London in the morning." + +"Sal, but you'll be seeing a lot of the world," said Jock. "I +wish I were going with you." + +"I wish you all were," said Alan. + +"We'll likely be having more traveling than we want," said Jean, +"when we have to give up the wee bit hoosie and go out and walk +the world." She looked up at the little gray house as she spoke, +and her eyes filled with tears. + +"It's the end of the Clan; that's what it is," said Sandy with +deepening despondency. + +"Oh, come now!" said Alan. "It's not so bad as all that, and I'm +surely coming back next summer. I know my mother'll let me, for +she'll see how much good it's done me to be here. Just look at +that," he added, baring his arm and knotting his biceps. +"Climbing around the cave and chasing after Angus Niel have made +me as tough as a knot. She won't know me when she sees me." + +"I wonder if we shall know you the next time we see you, if we +ever do," said Jean. + +"Ho!" said Alan, trying to smile gayly, "of course you will! I'll +have a sprig of the evergreen pine and give the pewit call, and +then you'll be sure." + +"What good will your coming back next summer do us?" said Jock. +"We shan't be here to see you! Our leases run out in October, and +nobody knows where we'll go after that! We've got to move out, so +the Auld Laird can have more space to raise game for Angus Niel +to kill," he finished bitterly. + +There seemed no way of brightening this sad prospect, and the +Clan sat for a few moments in mournful silence. Alan tried hard +to think of something comforting to say. + +"I'll tell you what," he exclaimed at length. "We can still be a +Clan, whether we see each other or not. We'll remember we're all +blood brothers just the same." + +"And that you are our Chief," added Jean, trying to look +cheerful. + +"Can't we go back to the cave just once more?" said Sandy. + +"I've got to be at the bridge at one o'clock," said Alan. "I've +said good-bye to Eppie, and she is packing my things, and putting +up a lunch, so I don't have to do anything but step into the +carriage when I get there. What time is it now?" + +Jean flew up the slope to the house and called back from the +door, "It's ten o'clock." + +"Come on, then, my merry men!" cried Alan, and the four started +off at a brisk trot, looking anything but merry as they went. + +"We shan't want to come here any more," said Jock, when they +reached the cave. "So we may as well take everything away." + +"Oh," said Alan, "something might happen to keep you in the +Glen Easig. You never can tell. You'd better take back the pots +and pans, but leave the wood, and then if we are here next +summer, it will be all ready for cooking a jolly old mess of +trout." + +"Whatever shall we do with the boat?" asked Jean. This was a +conundrum, but the Chief, as usual, was equal to the occasion. + +"There's only one thing we can do," he said. "It will just dry up +and fall to pieces up here; we'll let it down over the rock by +the ropes and leave it in the pool. Then when Angus finds it, +he'll be perfectly sure he was bewitched and be more afraid of +the falls than ever!" + +They worked hurriedly, for the time was short, and in another +hour the boat was floating in the fishing-pool, securely tied to +a pine tree on the bank. They packed pots and pans in the basket +and lowered it over the rock by the rope, and when everything was +done, Alan took the blue chalk and drew a sprig of pine on the +wall of the cave with the initials R. R. C. beside it. The four +children then scrambled down the secret stairway, feeling as if +they had said good-bye forever to a dear friend. When they +reached the little gray house, they left the basket in the +kitchen, and the entire Clan walked with Alan back to the bridge, +where they found the carriage waiting. + +Alan made short work of his good-byes. He shook hands all round +and sprang quickly into the carriage, and as it rattled away with +him down the road, he stood up, waving his bonnet with the spray +of evergreen pine in it and whistling the pewit call. + +"Dagon't," said Sandy, when the carriage passed out of sight +around a bend in the road. "Dagon't, we'll never find another +like the Chief." If Jean and Jock had felt able to say anything, +they would have echoed the statement. As it was, Sandy drew his +kilmarnock bonnet over his eyes, thrust his hands into his +pockets, and started dejectedly toward his own house, leaving +Jean and Jock, equally miserable, to return alone to the wee bit +hoosie on the brae. + + + + +XII. NEWS + + +The rest of the week seemed at least a month long to the lonely +twins. Sandy came to see them, to be sure, but with the passing +of the Chief, the flavor seemed gone from the play, and the Clan +made no further expeditions after Angus Niel. + +"He can just kill all the game he wants to," said Jean. "It's +the worse for the Auld Laird, I doubt, but who cares for that, so +long as he leaves Tam alone and keeps away from here? It's +nothing to me." + +Their father had been so taken up with his work and with turning +over in his mind plans for the future, when they should be +"walking the world," that he paid little attention to their +punishment of Angus Niel, about which he knew little and cared +less. He was absorbed in planning the best market for his sheep +and in getting as much from his garden as he could, hoping to +sell what he was unable to use himself, when the time came to +leave. His usually cheerful face had grown more and more troubled +as the summer wore on, and it was seldom now that his bagpipes +woke the mountain echoes, and whenever he did while away a rainy +evening with music, the melodies were as wild and mournful as his +own sad thoughts. + +Angus Niel's barometer now rose again. Finding himself no longer +pursued by his unseen foes, his waning self-confidence returned, and +it was only a week or two after Alan's departure that wonderful +stories began to go about the village concerning his prowess in +ridding the woods of thieves and marauders single-handed. + +"I've even found my boat," he announced one evening to a group of +men lounging about the village store, "and it was no human hands +that put it where I found it either! It was below the falls, if +you'll believe me, safe and sound and tight as ever. Any man that +is easily scared would better not be walking the woods in that +direction, I'm telling you, or likely he'd be whisked away by the +little people and shut up in some cave in the hills. I felt the +drawing myself once, but I knew how to manage. I was just gey +firm with them, and they knew I wasna fearful and let me go. It's +none so easy being a gamekeeper. It takes a bold man, and a canny +one, and well the poacher gang knew that. They're gone and good +riddance. It's taken me all summer to bring it about." + +"Oh," murmured Jock to Jean, when this was repeated to them by +Sandy the following Sabbath, "wouldn't Alan like to hear that?" +It was on that very Sabbath, too, that they learned the Dominie +had recovered and that school was to reopen on the following day. +This was good news to the Twins, for like all Scotch children +they longed for an education, and the next morning, bright and +early, they were on the road to the village, carrying some scones +and hard-boiled eggs for their luncheon, in a little tin pail. + +The days passed swiftly after that, for, with the house to care +for, lessons to get, and the walk of five miles to school and +back, there was little time for moping or even dreading the day +when they must leave their highland home. + +It was late August when they came rushing home one afternoon, +bursting with a great piece of news, which they had learned in +the village. Never had they covered the five miles of the +homeward journey more quickly, but when they reached the little +gray house, their father had not yet returned from the pastures, +though it was after his time. The two children ran back of the +house to the cow byre, and there in the distance they saw him +coming across the barren moor. He was walking slowly, with his +head bent as though he were tired and discouraged, and Tam, +limping along beside him, looked discouraged too. The Twins gave +a wild whoop and raced across the moor to meet them. Jock got +there first, but was too out of breath to speak for an instant. + +"Dear, dear! What can the matter be?" said their father, looking +from one excited face to the other. + +"Oh, Father," gasped Jean, finding her tongue first, "you never +can guess, so I'll tell you. The Auld Laird's dead." + +The Shepherd stood still in his tracks, too stunned for words. + +"Aye!" cried Jock, wishing to share in the glory of such an +exciting revelation. "He's as dead as a salt herring." + +"Oh, Father!" cried Jean, "aren't you glad? Now we won't have to +leave the wee bit hoosie and the Glen." + +"I'm none so sure of that," said the Shepherd slowly, when he had +recovered from the first shock of surprise. "The new Laird may be +worse than the old. Be that as it may, I'm not one to rejoice at +the death of any man. Death is a solemn thing, my dawtie, but the +Lord's will be done, and I'm not pretending to mourn." + +"We went to the village," cried Jean, "to get a bit of meat for the +pot, and there was a whole crowd of people around the post-office +door. 'T was the post-master gave us the news, and Mr. Craigie and +Angus Niel have put weeds on their hats and look as mournful as Tam +when he's scolded. We saw them out of the school-house window not two +hours gone." + +"They have reason to mourn," said the Shepherd grimly, "not for +the Auld Laird's death only, but for their own lives as well. +Aye, that's a subject for grief." He shook his head dubiously, +and, seeming to feel it was an occasion for a moral lesson, he +added, "'Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end +of that man is peace.'" + +"What has that to do with the Auld Laird?" asked Jock, much +mystified. + +"Nothing at all, maybe," answered the Shepherd, "but it's a wise +word to remember against our own time." + +"I wish Angus Niel would remember it," exclaimed Jean. + +"And Mr. Craigie no less," added Jock. + +"Well, well," said the Shepherd, "heard ye anything more in the +village?" + +"Aye, that we did," said Jean, who loved to prolong the +excitement of news. + +"Let me tell that," said Jock. "You told about the Auld Laird. +Well, then, Father, there's all kinds of tales about the new +Laird. It's said he's a wee bit of a laddie, not more than four +years old, and not the son of the Auld Laird at all, but a cousin +or something. It's said he's weak and sickly-like and not long +for this world." + +"Sandy's mother was in the village and walked with us to the +bridge," interrupted Jean, "and she heard that the heir is a +young man living in Edinburgh, and not even known to the Auld +Laird, who had no near kin. She had it from the minister's wife, +so it must be true." + +"Didn't Mr. Craigie say anything? He ought to know more about it +than any one. He's the Auld Laird's factor to carry out his will +while he was living. It's likely he'd know more than any other +about his will, now he's dead," said the Shepherd. + +"Mrs. Crumpet says he goes about with his mouth shut up as tight +as an egg, as though he knew a great deal more than other folk, +being so intimate-like with the Laird," said Jean. + +"Aye!" added Jock, "but she said she believed there was a muckle +he did not know at all, and he was keeping his mouth shut to make +folks think he knew but wasna telling." + +Jean now took up the tale. "Mrs. Crumpet had all the news in +town," she said, "and she told us that Angus Niel said he hoped +the new Laird was fond of the hunting and would appreciate his +work in preserving the game and driving poachers from the forests +of Glen Cairn. He said he had done the work of ten men, and it +was well that people should know it and be able to tell the new +Laird, when he comes into his own!" + +Even the Shepherd couldn't help smiling at that, and as for Jean +and Jock, they shouted with laughter. In spite of themselves, the +children and their father felt such relief from anxiety that they +walked back to the little gray house with lighter hearts than +they had felt for some time. Whoever the new Laird might be, it +would take time to settle the estate and find out the will of its +new owner, and meanwhile they could live on in their old home. +Beyond that, they could even hope that they might not have to go +at all. + +That night Jean cooked the first of their early potatoes from the +garden for supper and a bit of ham to eat with them, by way of +celebrating their reprieve, and after supper the Shepherd got out +his bagpipes and played "The Blue Bells of Scotland" until the +rafters rang again. Jean stepped busily about the kitchen in tune +to the music, humming the words to herself. + + "Oh where, tell me where is your Highland laddie gone? + He's gone with streaming banners where noble deeds are done, + And it's oh! in my heart, I wish him safe at home." + +And she thought of Alan as she sang. Afterward, when Jock and +Jean were safely stowed away for the night, the Shepherd went +over and brought from the table in the room his well-worn copy of +Robert Burns's "Poems," and the last view Jean had of him before +she went to sleep, he was reading "The Cotter's Saturday Night" +aloud to himself by the light of a flickering candle. + + + + +XIII. THE NEW LAIRD + + +It was Friday when news of the Auld Laird's death reached the village, +and on the following Sabbath there was not an empty seat in the kirk, +for every one was anxious to hear the latest gossip about the event +which meant so much to every one in the region. There was no newspaper +in the village, and the news of the week was passed about by word of +mouth in the kirkyard after service, or on week days was retailed over +the counter at the village post-office, which was post-office and +general store in one. + +The Campbells were early in their pew, and the Twins watched the +other worshipers as they came slowly up the aisle and took their +places before time for the service to begin. Sandy winked at them +most indecorously across the church, but his mother poked him to +remind him of his duty, and he sent no more silent messages to +the other members of the Clan. + +There was an air of expectation, which seemed to affect every one +in the kirk. Even the minister looked as if he had something +special on his mind, and as for Mr. Craigie, he was as solemnly +important, Sandy said afterwards, "as though he were the corpse +himself," while Angus Niel acted like nothing less than the chief +mourner. + +In the kirkyard he let it be known that he was entirely familiar +with the details of the Auld Laird's funeral, which had occurred +in London the day before, though how the particulars reached him +in so short a time must forever remain a mystery. + +It was Mr. Craigie, however, who gave out the important news +which every one had felt must be coming. On the steps after +service he said to Mr. Crumpet, "It's likely, Andrew, that you +may have more time about your lease. I've had news that the new +Laird is coming soon to the castle with his lawyers and some +other people to look over the estate and take possession. Eppie +McLean is to get ready for quite a party of the gentry." + +Mrs. Crumpet was standing near her husband, and she was a bold +woman who would have asked a question of the Auld Laird himself, +if she had had occasion. "Then it's the sickly bit laddie who's +the heir?" she said, "and not the Edinburgh man?" + +Mr. Craigie looked majestic and waved her aside, merely saying, +as he went down the steps, "It isna an Edinburgh body," but +giving no hint as to whether it was man, woman, or child. The +people who had gathered about him thinking to hear something +definite looked resentfully at his back as he walked away, and +Mrs. Crumpet openly expressed her opinion that he knew nothing +more about it himself. "If he did, he couldn't help letting it +dribble out by degrees, like a leaky kirn, being too stingy to +tell it out free, like any other body," she said. + +Mrs. Crumpet was a woman of rare penetration. Even Sandy didn't +often get ahead of his mother. + +For another week the village waited in suspense for further news, +and then on Saturday the report spread like wildfire through the +town that the new Laird with his party had arrived at the castle +the night before. + +It was Sandy who brought the news to the little gray house. "And +they say there were three carriage-loads of them and they never +got to Glen Cairn until dark," he cried; "and the tale is that +the castle ovens have never been cool since the word came a week +ago! Mother says Eppie McLean has been laying in provisions as if +she looked for seven lean years like Joseph in Egypt." + +"Losh!" interrupted Jock, "I wish Alan was here. Wouldn't we get +some of those good things for the cave, though." + +"But that isn't all the news," cried Sandy, who had come three +miles to tell it and was not going to let it burst from him too +suddenly. "There's more." + +"What is it, Sandy?" cried Jean, dancing with impatience. "Hurry, +lad; let out what's bottled up in you or you'll blow the cork!" + +"Well," exploded Sandy, "you'll get some of the good things +without Alan, I'm telling you, for there's to be a grand feast at +the castle, and everybody is asked to come! There's a sign up in +the village, and it's to be Monday at five o'clock. They say +Eppie McLean has fowls waiting by the dozen and a barrel of +tatties ready for the pot. Losh! I don't see how the new Laird +can stay weakly with so much to fill him up." + +"Sal!" cried Jean, "if he's such a wee laddie as they say, it's +likely his mother will be the one to say what's to be done in +Glen Cairn, and it's not likely she'll be wanting to go rampaging +over the country shooting game like the Auld Laird." + +"Ye can never tell," said Sandy, with a worldly air. "Some say +ladies is worse than men." + +"Never believe that," said Jean, promptly, and then she added a +little wistfully, "especially if they are mothers." + +At church the next day the congregation was in such a state of +excitement it was with the greatest difficulty that the proper +Sabbath decorum was observed. Sandy Crumpet brazenly looked over +his shoulder every time any one passed up the aisle, thinking +that perhaps the new Laird and his mother might come in at any +moment, and even the grown people looked sidewise, but no new +faces appeared and fear was expressed afterwards that the mother +of the heir was of the Established Church. Mrs. Crumpet said she +had always heard that among the gentry the women were fiercer in +their religion than the men. The Shepherd remembered the Laird of +Kinross, but said nothing. + +On the way home from church Jean and Jock noticed that smoke was +issuing from all the castle chimneys. It was now early autumn, +and, as Jean said, the castle must be damp from, standing so long +empty, and they had the right to warm it up for the wee Laird, +him being so sickly. + +The suspense of the long weeks of summer had now become acute. If +the Auld Laird's wish to turn the tenants out of their holdings +to make Glen Cairn into a large game preserve was to be carried +out, the time for doing it was near, and the people looked +forward to the supper at the castle with both hope and dread. + +Every one was to be there, and on Monday a wonderful amount of +preparation was going forward in every cottage and farmhouse on +the estate. Jean had her father's blacks on the line and +thoroughly brushed early in the morning, and the Sabbath clothes +for all three of them laid out on the chairs in "the room" by +noon. At four o'clock they were on their way to the castle. Jock +had wanted to start at three, but Jean was firm. + +"It isna genteel to be going so early," she said. "T'will look +greedy, and you'll not get fed the sooner." + +Any one would have said Jean looked pretty that day, for she was +not wearing her "Saturday face," and the little curls had crept +around her head unbeknownst and were blowing in bright tendrils +about her forehead under the edge of her bonnet with its sprig of +pine. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes bright with health and +excitement, and Robert Campbell, looking with pride at his sturdy +son and daughter, said to himself, "It's a sonsie lassie and braw +lad. I wish their mother could see them." + +They walked down the river road, where the autumn colors were +beginning to appear, and at the bridge met the Crumpet family all +dressed in their best, also on their way to the castle. Sandy had +scrubbed himself till his face was shining like a glass bottle, and +the sprig of pine waved proudly from his bonnet, too. At every branch +road they were joined by others, and when they neared the castle gates +there was already quite a large group of people from the village as +well. Every one was in a state of tense excitement, for the fate of +all hung in the balance. Since the tenure of their homes was at the +mercy of the new Laird, his ideas and disposition were of vital +importance in their lives, and they were keen to see him and find out +for themselves what manner of person he might be. Mr. Crumpet was +looking very glum. He took a morose view of life at best, and the +present circumstances certainly warranted apprehension. + +"If it's a wee bit of a laddie, as we are led to expect," he said +to the Shepherd, "he'll have no judgment of his own, and be +dependent on them as has him in charge. Mr. Craigie will not be +loosening his hold, and with only a weak woman and a sickly boy +to deal with, he'll wind 'em around his finger like a wisp o' +wool. It's my opinion we'll have Mr. Craigie to deal with more +than ever." + +"Well," said Mrs. Crumpet philosophically, "and if we jump at all +'t will be but from the fire back to the frying-pan again, I'm +thinking." + +Various other opinions were expressed by one and another as the +tenants of Glen Cairn followed the wide drive which led to the +castle doors. Most of them had never before been inside the walls +of the park, and they looked about them with interest at the +unkempt and overgrown drive and at the bracken and heather +spreading even over the lawns. It was evident that the place had +been left to take care of itself for many years. + +It was a warm day in late September, and though there was a touch +of red in the ivy which draped the gray castle walls, the air was +mellow with the haze of autumn and musical with the buzzing of +bees. + +Mr. Craigie, looking more like a pair of tongs than ever, stood +on the terrace with the minister and his wife, while Angus Niel, +swelling with importance, ranged round the outskirts of the crowd +as they approached the castle, gradually herding them toward the +entrance. When they were all gathered in front of the terrace, +the minister came forward to the steps and lifted his hand. A +hush instantly fell upon the waiting people, and the minister +spoke. + +"Her ladyship has asked me to say to you that she and the new +Laird will meet you here," he said, "and afterward conduct you to +the banqueting-hall, where supper will be served. It is their +desire to know you all personally, and I will be here to present +you as you come up the steps." + +There was a surprised look on every face as the minister finished +speaking. What manner of landlord could this be, who made a point of +knowing his tenants as men and women the moment he came to the estate? +It was a breathless moment when at last the great castle doors swung +open, revealing a group of people standing in the entrance. There was +an instant's pause, and then a tall strong-looking woman stepped +forward upon the terrace, with her hand resting lightly on the +shoulder of a sturdy black-haired boy nearly as tall as herself. The +boy was dressed in kilts, with the Campbell plaid flung over his +shoulder and a spray of evergreen pine nodding gayly from his +Glengarry bonnet. + +"Michty me! It's Alan!" exclaimed Jock, so stunned by surprise +that his knees nearly gave way under him, while Jean, her eyes +shining like stars, clutched her father's hand, too stunned to +realize at first that Alan and the new Laird of Glen Cairn were +one and the same person. In fact, nobody realized it at once, for +many of the tenants had come to know and like Alan during the +summer, simply as "the boy who was staying with Eppie McLean." + +They were still gazing at the castle door and wondering why the +"puny wee laddie, who was not long for this world" did not +appear, when the gracious lady, who still stood with her hand +resting proudly on Alan's shoulder, began to speak. + +"Many of you already know the new Laird of Glen Cairn as Alan +McCrae," she said, smiling kindly down into their blank upturned +faces. "He has been among you all summer and has learned to love +our Highland country without dreaming that he himself would one +day inherit this beautiful estate. He is next of kin to the Auld +Laird, though not a near relative, and had no idea that I had any +purpose beyond the improvement of his health in sending him here +for the summer. I knew that which he did not, that he was likely +soon to be called to take the Auld Laird's place here, and I +wanted him to know you first, not as tenants, but as friends +merely. He has come to love this region for its own sake, and +comes among you like a true Scotchman, meaning to make this his +home and the interests of this community his own interests. He is +not yet of age, as you see, but his purposes and plans are +clearly formed, and I will leave him to explain them to you +himself." + +She stopped speaking, and the people, overwhelmed with surprise +and joy, burst into a hearty and prolonged cheer, as Alan stepped +forward to make his speech. He was only a boy, and a very much +embarrassed one at that, but he knew what he wanted to say and he +got to the point at once. + +"I just want you to know," he said, "that nobody's going to be +turned out if he doesn't want to be. I know all about the lease, +and that it's going to run out this fall, but any one who wants +to stay on the land and improve it is going to have the chance to +do it. My mother knows a lot about such things, and we're going +to collect the rents ourselves, and we think, maybe, when I'm of +age, there'll be some way by which people who really want to use +the land may own it instead of being obliged to rent. Mother says +they are beginning to do it in Ireland, and in England too in +some places. + +"I've found out that people are more important than rabbits and +deer, and they are going to have first chance at the land of Glen +Cairn as long as I'm Laird." This was greeted with such a roar of +cheers that for a moment it was quite impossible for Alan to +proceed. He smiled bashfully at his mother and then held up his +hand for silence. + +"I just want to say, too," he went on, biting his lips to keep +from laughing, "that after this there won't be any gamekeeper on +Glen Cairn. If the rabbits spoil your crops you're welcome to +catch them if you can! I've ranged these woods myself all summer, +and I have found out that gamekeepers are no safeguard against +poachers." A gasp of astonishment greeted this statement, and +Angus Niel was observed to turn ashy pale. + +"In fact, I know that sometimes gamekeepers turn poachers +themselves and make money selling what they have killed," he went +on. Here Angus Niel, looking suddenly deflated, like a burst +balloon, began quietly to slink out of sight, and Alan, brimful +of mischief, raised his voice so it would be sure to reach him +and said, "I've seen it done myself, and if Angus Niel wants to +know any more about that gang of twenty blood-thirsty villains +which has scared the life out of him all summer, he can come to +me and I'll tell him. I'm the Chief of that gang, and there are +three others just like me, and that's all!" He winked rapturously +at the three other members of the Clan, who were gazing up at him +in a stupor of astonishment, and fired his last shot at the +fleeing Angus, while the audience, catching his meaning, burst +into howls of derisive laughter. + +"Don't hurry, Angus," he called. "I want to tell you about your +boat and about the water witch that haunted you. I'm the water +witch too!" But Angus was already out of hearing and scuttling as +fast as his trembling legs could carry him to get out of sight, +as well. When the roars of laughter had subsided, Alan said, with +a boyish grin, "It's too bad he couldn't stay to supper. And now +come up, everybody, and meet my mother." + +It was then that the Shepherd of Glen Easig astonished himself and +every one else by shouting at the top of his lungs, "Three cheers for +the young Laird!" and when they had been given with such energy that +the hills rang with the echoes, he called for three more for her +ladyship, and Alan waved his cap in acknowledgment for them both. + +Then the people, surprised out of their usual Scotch reserve by +laughter and by the joy of good news, came swarming up the steps +and were introduced to Alan's mother by Alan himself when he knew +them, and by the minister when he did not. + +The Shepherd, with the bashful Clan in his wake, came last of +all, and the Twins heard him say to her ladyship, "God bless the +laddie! It was a rare day for the Glen when he fell into the burn +and came to dry himself by our fireside." + +"It was a rare day for me, too, Cousin Campbell," said Alan, and +then; catching sight of Sandy and the Twins hanging back behind +their father, what did he do but pucker up his lips and whistle +the pewit call? The Clan was too overcome then even to attempt a +pucker, and Alan, springing forward, tried to grasp three hands +at once and introduced them to his mother as his Rob Roy Clan. + +The Twins and Sandy were not a bit like the bold buccaneers of +the cave when the great lady of Glen Cairn smiled on them kindly. + +"I told you I'd wear the sprig of evergreen pine and whistle the call +of the Clan the next time you saw me," cried Alan, as they fell in +behind the others, who were now entering the banquet-hall. "Why didn't +you answer?" + +"Oh, but," said Jean, a little sadly and blushing like a poppy, +"we never thought you'd be coming back so grand like. You'll +never be playing with the Clan any more in Glen Easig, surely, +now that you 're a great Laird!" + +"And why not, I'd like to know?" cried the great Laird, looking +hurt. "I'm still Alan McRae, Chief of the Clan, the same as +before, and as true to my friends as Rob Roy himself was before +me. We'll have many a good day in the woods yet before snow +flies; and listen, I've a plan in my head!" + +"There speaks the Chief," cried Jock, forgetting to be afraid of +him. "He was ever having plans in his head. Out with it, man." + +"It's this," said Alan, "I'm going to have a tutor here at the +castle, and you're all to have your lessons here with me, and no +end of larks!" Here Sandy, who had so far merely gazed at his +Chief with speechless devotion, suddenly burst into words. + +"Aye, Chief," he cried, "that was a true word you spoke about no +gamekeeper being needed in Glen Cairn. I'm none so keen for the +learning, but if there should be poachers hanging about, they'll +have Sandy Crumpet to deal with; let them take warning of that!" + +Alan laughed and clapped Sandy on the back. "I'd rather have you +than forty Angus Niels," he said, and then they were swept along, +without a chance for further words, into the great hall, where +they found long tables spread and Eppie McLean with a dozen +helpers bringing in such stores of food that all Sandy had said +about the preparations at the castle was justified at a glance. + +Most of the people had already found places at the tables when +the young Laird and his mother, followed by the minister and his +wife and the castle guests, cams into the hall. The Twins and +Sandy hung back behind all the other guests, but Alan found +places for them opposite his own, and then he handed his mother +to the seat of honor at the head of the table. The minister and +the guests from the city ranged themselves on either side, and +every one stood with bowed head while the minister asked a +blessing upon the food, upon the new Laird and his mother, and +upon all the people of Glen Cairn. + +There was a great scraping of chairs, and then every one sat down +and fell upon the good things like an army of locusts upon a +harvest field. The great hall, so long silent, echoed with happy +voices and the clatter, of knives and forks, and Jean, looking +across the table at the new Laird, in all his glory, wondered if +it could be possible that it was the very Alan whom she had +shaken when Angus shot the stag, or who had helped her set the +table in the kitchen of the little gray house, while his wet +clothes were drying by the cottage fire. She ate her supper like +one in a dream, and though she kept a watchful eye on Jock's +table manners and warned Sandy's elbows off the table several +times in her own efficient way, she could scarcely believe such +wonderful things were really happening to her. + +At last the wonderful day drew to a close, and the people of Glen +Cairn, happier than they had been in a long time, said good-bye to +the gracious lady of the castle and to the already beloved young +Laird, and started home in the deepening twilight of the autumn +evening. + +The Clan, lingering behind their parents, looked back at the +group on the castle terrace before the trees hid them from sight, +and Jock sent the pewit call shrilling through the dusk. It was +answered instantly from the terrace. + +"He is just like Prince Charlie, I'm thinking," said Sandy, and +Jock, to ease his feelings, whistled "Charlie is my darling" all +the way to the gate of the park. + +The evening star was shining brightly over the dark outline of +old Ben Vane as the Campbells reached the little gray house on +the brae, now safely their home forever, and Tam came bounding +down the path to meet them. Jean kissed her hand to the star and +murmured to herself, + + "Star light, star bright, + I have the wish I wished to-night." + + + + +GLOSSARY + + +Auld, old. + +Aye (pronounced i), yes. + +Aye (pronounced a), ever, always. + + +Bailie, an officer of the law. + +Bairn, a child. + +Ben. See But and ben. + +Besom, a broom. + +Bide, stay. + +Bittock, a little bit. + +Blatherskite, a babbling person, a good-for-nothing. + +Blethering, talking nonsense. + +Bonny, pretty, beautiful, charming. + +Bracken, brake, a species of tall fern. + +Brae (pronounced bray), a hillside. + +Braw, fine, handsome. + +Burn, a brook. + +But and ben, outside and in. + +But the house means out of the house. But is also applied to the +kitchen; going but is going from the best room to the kitchen, +and going ben is going into the best room. + +Byre, a cow-shed. + + +Canny, shrewd. + +Chap, a knock. + + +Daft, silly, foolish. + +Dandering, wandering. + +Dawtie, darling, pet. + +Dinna, do not. + +Dod, an exclamation. + +Doubt, suspect. + +Dyke, a low fence or wall of turf or stone. + + +Fash, disturb. + +Fine, finely, well. + + +Gey, very. + +Gin (g as in give), if. + +Girdle, a griddle. + +Glengarry bonnet, a small cap without visor. + +Greet, weep. + +Guddling, catching fish with the hands. + + +Havers (a as in hay), nonsense (an exclamation). + + +Isna, is not. + + +Keek, a peep. + +Ken, know. + +Kilmarnock bonnet, a tam-o'-shanter. + +Kirk, church. + +Biro, a churn. + +Kist, a chest. + + +Laird, a lord, a landed proprietor. + +Laverock, the lark. + +Limmer, a mischievous person. + +Losh, an exclamation. + +Loup, to leap. + +Lug, ear. + + +Mealy pudding, a Scotch dish made of oatmeal and suet, in form +something like a sausage. + +Michty (pronounced michty, with the gutteral ch as in the German +word ich), mighty, large, powerful. + +Michty me, an exclamation. + + +Na, no, not. + + +Pawky, sly. + +Pewit, the lapwing, a species of plover. + +Plaidie (pronounced pladie), diminutive of plaid. Each clan had +its own especial pattern which was worn by all members. + + +Redding up, putting in order. + + +Sal, an exclamation. + +Scone, a flat cake, unsweetened, baked on a griddle. + +Skirl, a shrill sound, especially that characteristic of the +bagpipes. + +Slippit awa', slipped away, died. + +Sousie (both s's as in so), agreeable, attractive, comely, +pleasant. + +Spier (pronounced spear), ask. + +Sync, afterward, since. + + +Tarn, a small mountain lake. + +Tatties, potatoes. + +Tid, a pet name for a child. + +Tirley-wirley, a disturbance. + + +Wasna, was not. + +Wee bit hoosie, little house. + +Whaup, the curlew, a large bird of the Sandpiper Family. + +Wifie, an endearing term for a woman. + + + + +SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS + + +This story can be read without much preparation by any fifth or +sixth grade pupils. In the fifth grade it may be well to have the +children read the story first in a study period in order to work +out the pronunciation of the more difficult words and to get +sufficient command of the Scotch dialect, which, however, is not +used to so great an extent that it will be difficult for American +children to understand. The teacher should explain the use of the +glossary in this connection. In the sixth grade the children will +usually be able to read the story at sight except so far as +reference to the glossary is necessary to the understanding of +Scottish words and phrases. + +As in all the Twins readers, the possibilities in this story for +dramatization will be immediately apparent. The numerous outdoor +adventures, the discovery of the cave, and the fishing will +probably be the scenes that will make the most immediate appeal +to boys who are beginning to show the Boy Scout spirit; and other +phases of outdoor life, no less than the touches of housework, +will appeal to members of the Girl Scout and the Girls' Camp Fire +organization. The illustrations in the book show hints for simple +costuming which may be followed when desired. + +Mrs. Perkins's illustrations can be used in other ways also. +Children will enjoy sketching many of them, since their simple +style makes them especially available in this way. An excellent +oral exercise would be for the children after they have read the +story to take turns in telling it from the illustrations; and a +good composition exercise would be for each pupil to select the +illustration that he would like to write upon, to make a copy of +it, and then to tell its story in his own way. + +During the reading, the teacher should tell the children +something about Scotland, geographically and historically. A file +of the National Geographic Magazine, which is accessible in most +public libraries, will be found to contain many illustrated +articles which will be invaluable in this connection. Teachers +should refer also to Tomlinson's "Young Americans in the British +Isles," Kate Douglas Wiggin's "Penelope's Progress," the volumes +devoted to Scotland in Longfellow's series, "Poems of Places," +and to Bradley's "The Gateway of Scotland." Other references are +Hunnewell's "Lands of Scott" and Olcott's "The Country of Sir +Walter Scott." (Consult the indexes for references to Rob Roy, +The Lady of the Lake, etc. Also of course Scott's novels and +poems and Burns's poems contain much material that can be drawn +upon.) Particularly to be recommended are the selections +published in the Riverside Literature Series and in Webster and +Coe's "Tales and Verse from Sir Walter Scott." + +Just at the present time when the tercentenary of the landing at +Plymouth occupies all our attention, it is particularly timely to +recall the potent influences of the Scottish people upon the +Puritans in old England and the Pilgrims who founded New England. +Scott's "Tales of a Grandfather" and Dickens's "Child's History +of England," also Tappan's "England's Story" will give an account +of how the Scotch rose in revolt against kings and prelates, and +how they were the first nation in Europe to establish in their +country the underlying principles of democracy. The Scottish +systems of land tenure--which may be said to be the theme of The +Scotch Twins--are discussed in Beaton's "Highlands of Scotland." +Of particular bearing is his comment upon conditions resulting +from the withdrawal of soil for purposes of sport, the poaching +that followed, etc. + +The spirit of Scottish history is epitomized in Burns's poem, "A +Man's a Man for a' That," and the ingenious teacher will need no +further prompting as to the ways in which this poem and the +movement for which it stands are related to the history of our +own country. A further debt to Scotland lies in the character of +the Scotch immigrants to the United States and their descendants; +Griffis's "Bonnie Scotland and What We Owe Her" will show how to +apply this suggestion and others which will come to mind from +these paragraphs. + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of The Scotch Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins + diff --git a/old/sctwn11.zip b/old/sctwn11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e8a2903 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sctwn11.zip |