things"; then, looking up timidly, she
offered to her friend a bunch of water-lilies, which Hughie had waded
far out into the pond up to his short kilt to obtain.

"Thank you," said Bertha. "O how sweet they are, a thousand times
sweeter than those that grow in the moat, are n't they, mamma?"

Lady Blantyre smiled, for there was really no difference, the lilies at
the Castle having been brought from this very pond.

"How long have you been at your great work there?" she asked of Hughie.

"For maist a week, my Lady; but for the last twa days Domine MacGregor
has been down wi' an ill turn, and I hae (have) lost na time at schule
(school), so I hae got on weel wi' it. It will soon be done noo."

"And what do you intend to do with it when it is finished?" asked the
lady.

"I canna say, but I think we 'll play flood-time wi' it."

"What is that?"

"Your ladyship sees that wee-bit island; weel, we'll put on it some
doggies and a cat."

"Not my wee puss, Winkie?" cried Lilly in alarm.

"No, auld black Tammy will do, and a chicken or twa, and we 'll watch
the water rise and rise, till the puir creatures huddle togither and
greet and cackle and howl, then I 'll loup (leap) intil the burn, and
one after anither rescue them a'."

"O, how grand that would be!" exclaimed little Bertha, her eyes
flashing with excitement.

"Rather cruel sport," said Lady Blantyre, shaking her head, yet smiling
in spite of herself.

"Is it?" said Hughie, his countenance falling, "then I 'll no do it. I
'll but drive a' the duckies and fulish geese down here, and see them
gae quacking and skirling over the dam. I hope _they'll_ no object to
the sport."

"Probably not," said her ladyship, pleasantly.

"O mamma," said Bertha, looking up wistfully into her face, "how I
should love to play so with water and pebbles, and little boats, and
ducks and geese, and dams, all day long! How happy they must be!"

"Perhaps little Lilly thinks it would be a very happy thing to be in
your place, my daughter," said Lady Blantyre.

"_Do_ you think so?" asked Bertha, wonderingly.

"Ay," answered Lilly, in a low, almost awestruck tone, "I think that to
be Miss Bertha, and bide in a braw (fine) Castle, wad be next to being
an angel, or a bonnie fairy princess."

All laughed at this, but on the way home Bertha was very thoughtful and
sad. Every time she spoke, it was to bewail her hard lot in being
allowed to take the air only in walks with her g