Little Folks (October 1884) / A Magazine for the Young

ted here and there by bright patches of the thorny golden rod. Dame Nature had evidently painted out of her summer paint-box, and had not spared her best and brightest colo

ns, such as no paint-box ever did, nor ever will, possess; and over all the most azure of blues, flecked with floating masses of soft indescribable white, looking to Elsie like th

see her bright handiwork. Yet, sad to tell, there lay the broad sheet of crimson and gold day aft

y in a day could be counted on the fingers of your hand; and as for the moor itself, it seldom had any visitors but the cows from the little farm which nestled

along, to notice the gorgeous dress their moor had put on. They were so used to it. Had she not worn it every year since they could remember? and so they sauntered by, thinking about eating or drinking, or how they wo

tle green hollow just beyond a fair-sized hillock was one where lived the MacDougalls. These two children were Elsie and Duncan MacDougall. They very often crossed the moor, for the farm was on the other side of it, and the milk and butter h

pushed back her sun-bonnet from her damp freckled forehead, crossed her brown arms defiantly over her

ly she said it in a broad Scottish accent which you would hardly have understood

" Duncan said, miserably. "Mother's alwa

ain't afraid. It's only Robbie that they're in such a hurry to get the

h would have been quite untrue; and, in the second, it would have got Elsie into trouble with their mother, and that Duncan would not have done for any

he fidgeted from one bare foot to the other, or vented his impatience by flinging his Scottish bonnet high in the air and catching it again. E

f the stone, and began slowly to stretch herself.

t the side of the stone. "It's much too hot and I'm much too tired, and I don't see why I should be expected to fetch t

new Elsie was very daring, but did she

Robbie never goes nowhere wit

d. "It's just what I do know. Robbie stops at home while you and

ome with us: you know you wouldn't

oilt little namby-pamby cry-babies along with me; but that's no reason why I, a girl, shou

erent. He didn't care for Robbie: Elsie didn't, and so he didn't. Elsie said he was a spoilt baby, therefore Duncan knew he must be o

age-leaf. Duncan had the milk-can, and would have been almost home by now, had he not been obliged to keep on waiti

en at length they reached the purple hillock on the other side

longer, and we're so

y. "I'm a girl and I'm not going

truly, when there was milk to carry, but at other times. And now Elsie was walking along in a languid, mincing fashion, as if she had no more

beckoning us. I expect mother's ver

ed, with the most provoking indifference

a most unswerving, unquestioning loyalty? and that though he was, so to speak, ready to jump o

running towards them, calling out, "Elsie, Duncan

re you'd better fetch the milk yourself another time. Dun

y cross," he reiterated dubiously, as if not quite knowing

on to the heather, what'ud you say to that?" and she lifted up the lid, and ti

ic; while Robbie exclaimed, "Wouldn't mother make you go back

n again, but as she did so she said to Robbie, "You'd like to tell mother what I sai

said, almost angrily, with a pink

lest gold, of silky texture, falling in curling locks almost on to his shoulders. He was, in short, a smaller, weaker, more delicate edition of these two elder ones. They looked the very embodiment of health and strength, he fragile, timid, and delicate. No wonder he never scampered across the heath or rolled down the hillsides. The mists were too chilly for him, the sun too hot; and so it came about that Elsie and Duncan went together, and Robbie was left behind, for Elsie was selfish, and hadn't it in her nature to wait about for the little one, and suit her steps or her play to his, and Duncan

us," cried Duncan, anxiously scanning El

ns of a storm. Mrs. MacDougall's face was red, her mouth ominously screwed up; sh

ike, but you are mistaken, you lazy, ill-behaved wench. The new frock I had bought you shall be given to Nannie Cameron, and you shall wear your old one to the kirk. How will that suit your vanity? And you may be off to

can was beside himself. He cast a beseeching glance at Elsie, a momentary one of resentful ange

dare me?" she cried. "Did I ever threaten and not perform? Will you compel me

, but those sturdy, legs had the very spirit of obstinac

ed. "She has never done it be

and Mrs. MacDougall was not a woman to be dared with impunity. El

e cottage kitchen. Then she took Elsie by the shoulder, and marched her up the

ing towards

ow sobbing sound, and a minute or two afterward

s for Duncan, each mouthful threatened to choke him. Mrs. MacDougall wore

if you do it. You wouldn't, would you, Elsie? Mother never whipped you before, n

me every day. I don't care. You don't know what I know, and you don't know what I'm going to do, but I