heeks were bright and her teeth small, white and beautifully even;
and a woman's soul looked at Bryden out of her soft Irish eyes. He was
troubled and turned aside, and catching sight of a frog looking at him
out of a tuft of grass he said:--

"I have been looking for a frog to put upon my pike line."

The frog jumped right and left, and nearly escaped in some bushes, but
he caught it and returned with it in his hand.

"It is just the kind of frog a pike will like," he said. "Look at its
great white belly and its bright yellow back."

And without more ado he pushed the wire to which the hook was fastened
through the frog's fresh body, and dragging it through the mouth he
passed the hooks through the hind legs and tied the line to the end of
the wire.

"I think," said Margaret, "I must be looking after my cows; it's time I
got them home."

"Won't you come down to the lake while I set my line?"

She thought for a moment and said:--

"No, I'll see you from here."

He went down to the reedy tarn, and at his approach several snipe got
up, and they flew above his head uttering sharp cries. His fishing-rod
was a long hazel stick, and he threw the frog as far as he could into
the lake. In doing this he roused some wild ducks; a mallard and two
ducks got up, and they flew towards the larger lake. Margaret watched
them; they flew in a line with an old castle; and they had not
disappeared from view when Bryden came towards her, and he and she
drove the cows home together that evening.

They had not met very often when she said, "James, you had better not
come here so often calling to me."

"Don't you wish me to come?"

"Yes, I wish you to come well enough, but keeping company is not the
custom of the country, and I don't want to be talked about."

"Are you afraid the priest would speak against us from the altar?"

"He has spoken against keeping company, but it is not so much what the
priest says, for there is no harm in talking."

"But if you are going to be married there is no harm in walking out
together."

"Well, not so much, but marriages are made differently in these parts;
there is not much courting here."

And next day it was known in the village that James was going to marry
Margaret Dirken.

His desire to excel the boys in dancing had aroused much gaiety in the
parish, and for some time past there had been dancing in every house
where there was a floor fit to dance upon; and if the cottager had no