The Right Stuff: Some Episodes in the Career of a North Briton

lgent reader two more members of th

ealings with her fellow-creatures she exhibits all the sangfroid and self-possession that mark the modern child. She will be a "handful" some day, the Twins tell me, and they ought to know. However, pending

esting figures from story-books. Consequently it is never safe to address her too suddenly. She may be a fairy, or a bear, or a locomotive at the moment, and will resent having to

n I am. She is our only child; and I sometimes wonder, at moments of acute mental introspect

he Twins form the female side. He is, I think, fourteen years of age, and he is at present a member of what he considers-very rightly, I think; and I should k

nce to his sisters of which he is heartily and frankly ashamed, and which he endeavours at times to nullify as far as possible by a degree of personal u

"unformed." He is always noisy, constitutionally lazy, and hopelessly casual. But he possesses the supreme merit of bei

rpetual guerilla warfare. Every vacation brings him home with a fresh tale of base subterfuges, petty tyrannies, and childish exhibitions of spite on the part of the infamous Mellar, all duly frustrated, crushed, and made ridiculous by the ingenuity,

erald one day. "Do you know what

ha

d rather na?vely. "As soon as I saw it, of course I got out my knife and started to carve my na

chool hours?" I ve

s as to want to come in specially to carve his name during play

t of that," I sai

e, though I knew it was merely the one he keeps for moments of playful badinage. "I saw your name carved in letters about four inches high in

appearance to pass without prote

all in capitals: I thought it would look best that way-when suddenly a great h

t-

say it quickly it sounds like 'Smeller.' So we call him 'Stinker.' It was a kid called Lane thought of

th of gigantic in

nd said, 'Hallo, young man, what's all this? Handing down

as just car

ve just finish

hen I saw that the whole thing as it stood spelled 'GRUB.' Lord, how the swine laughed! He tol

in a sort of slow drawl.) 'We will leave your name exactly as you have carved it. But remember, young man, not another letter do you add to that name so long as you are a member of this school. A Grub you are,-a nasty little destructive Grub,-and a Grub you shall remain, s

a of me with a lot of kids. But that wasn't all.

is. This silly street-boy business has been getting too prevalent lately: we shall have you chalking things up on the walls next. I particularly gave out la

who was sitting by. "All f

ce rising to the surface at once. "I wasn't lammed for cutting t

d Dilly, with feminine dis

ever can understand the rules of any game. Stinker is a bargee, but he was quite right to lam me. It was for disobedienc

regards Gerald, so far as I can see, with a grim mixture of amusement and compassion. He pays frequent visits to my house, as his father is

and having discovered that Robin not only played Rugby football, but had on several occasions represented Edinburg

n Robin, during the course of a desultory conversation on education in general, sudd

taught to worship bodily strength-("Quite right too!" said my herculean brother-in-law),-they were herded together under a monastic system; they were removed from the refining influence of female so

ents which prevent our schools from being altogether despicable: unquestioning obedience to authority, for instance, or loyalty to tradition. I might have told of characters moulded and fibres stiffened by responsibility-our race bears more responsibility on its shoulders than

urse old Moke there"-this was Master Donkin's unhappy but inevitable designation among his friends-"is too

ent pending a personal investig

municated to me privately afterwards,

pretty sound chap on the whole-the best secretary you have had, anyhow, o

ttled down as an accepted member of my household until

s regards this apartment. Fatima-like, she may do what she pleases with the rest of the house. She may indulge her passion for drawing-room meetings to its fullest extent. She may intertain missionaries in the attics and hold meetings of the Dorcas Society in the basement. She may g

Mad Dogs Bill,"-and about four o'clock I handed it to Robin with instructions to write out a fair copy. Robin retired into his inner chamber, and I

ture of things, come to birth; or else an Association for the Prevention of something that was bound to go on so long as the world endured. I had been mercifully absolved from attending, and m

ecretary had been elevated to avuncular ra

ck, and a rustle which suggested the hasty layi

ite Scoticism of Robin's, and appears

g feet. Next ensued a period of rather audible osculat

do? Shall I s

revels were ab

it in Church yesterday afternoon, so I brought it home and

ers,' i

I like sailors much better than soldie

, with much presence of mind.

so good that Phil

Two was wise and one was just a foolish young horse. T

secretary, in tone

n the midst of the snowy plains of Muscov

id Robin grav

ble to fill up the gaps for myself when she dropped to a confidential whisper-"one cold, windy, berleak day,

per to-day?' Then he began to wiggle and wiggle at his halter. The old horses said, 'There is wolves outside, and our master says that they eat all sheep an' cattle an' horses,' But the young horse just wiggled a

ing about transferred epithets, apologised fo

a awful, fearful, deep growl,"-Phillis's voice sank to a bloodcurdling

ew that she was now on the hearth-rug,

r up his back, then a bite at his neck; and then he felt

hi

s cons

he Kelpie and th

bit lassie grew more enthralling and the Kelpie more terrifying, he became almost as immersed as his audience. When I peeped through the curtain they were both sitting on the hearth-rug pressed close together, Phillis

y she could feel a hot breath on her neck." (So could Robin on his, for t

s webbed feet going pad pad over the slipp

ently though, she came to a wee bit housie on the moor. It was empty, but she slippit through the

eamed Phillis, who would countenance

e, and turned the key. Then she felt round in the dark and keeked about, wondering wha

nt ben

t, through the bit window in the back-end of t

up the tale; "and with one wild sheriek of disappointed ra

ter this exciting anecdot

t story down, and then I can

te it down f

ly allowed to use pencil," explained my daughter, not without a cert

himself into the room. It was the evening before his return to school, and the

might address to a refractory mob, "Moke and I are going

y day furniture was supplie

to go on that wall opposite the window, shan't we, Moke? The place where young Le

d in the

not the slig

of red ink to cover. I have been taking a look round the house, and I mu

me as much as to say that, whatever he thought of my taste

ontinued Gerald. "It's hanging in the

is and Robin had j

. I should fink it was a friend of the Great Eastern's," she added, referring t

o let me have some of his cheap. Then you can have yours back, Adrian. That's the scheme! Come on, Moke, we'll go and take it down now. Thanks very much, old chap" (to me). "I'll tell Kitty that you'v

swept from the room,

gned and numbered proof of An Ocean Greyhound, by Michael Angelo Mahlstaff, A.R.A. (a wedding gift to my wife and myself from the artist), but th

t Robert Chalmers Fordyce was a man capable, in