The Scotch Twins

t 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 h

s, the Shepherd drew his chair to

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

there yet?"

dmother was such a thriftless wifie as that! She mended

fold after f

f you want to see mending that would m

s shoulder, and Alan twisted himself ne

looking closely at the pattern. "My mother's name

cried Robin with new interest in Ala

ple are all Scotch, and she loves Scotland. That's one

nsmen. 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

lation?" cried Jea

gors 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 r

the floor to express his feelings. When the excitement had died down a bit, Alan drew his stool up beside the Shepherd's knee

other knee. Even Tam was interested. He sat on the hearth in front of

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. Yo

asked Jean, gazing at he

said that he was aye regular at the kirk. It's true he never forgot an enemy, but he

n they weren't true

ey had been," replied

away Craig Royston?" asked Jock. "Didn'

ad, the more land he wanted, the same as other lairds. Be that as it may, Crai

the Auld Laird," cried Jean. "He's

wn hand on Jean's small one on his knee. "But the loss of it hurts just the s

asked Alan, his eyes shinin

The Auld Laird will neither use the land nor let us." He explained about the lease, a

ion myself," answered the Sh

b Roy did? If the Crumpets and all the people who have to give up their homes should band together in a clan and hide themselv

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

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? T

s?" gasped Alan, his blac

e water closed over them and they were never seen agai

led with mysterious tricky shadows that danced with the flickering flames on the hearth. Jean looked fearfully over her shoulder

sticking out of your heads. I'll give you a skirl on the bagpipes if Jeanie'll bring them from th

ht 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 Wate

herd, 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 disapp

nd play then

ts away in the closet again. "He's a

its of clothes, one as good as t

is father's work

t his mother," said Jock, and at that mom

k at the hour, Jock Campb