h cream instead of water--it was very little she ate of
anything--and held it out to Robert in a hand white, soft, and smooth,
but with square finger tips, and squat though pearly nails. 'Ha'e,
Robert,' she said; and Robert received it with a 'Thank you, grannie';
but when he thought she did not see him, slipped it under the table
and into his pocket. She saw him well enough, however, and although she
would not condescend to ask him why he put it away instead of eating it,
the endeavour to discover what could have been his reason for so doing
cost her two hours of sleep that night. She would always be at the
bottom of a thing if reflection could reach it, but she generally
declined taking the most ordinary measures to expedite the process.

When Robert had finished his tea, instead of rising to get his books and
betake himself to his lessons, in regard to which his grandmother had
seldom any cause to complain, although she would have considered herself
guilty of high treason against the boy's future if she had allowed
herself once to acknowledge as much, he drew his chair towards the fire,
and said:

'Grandmamma!'

'He's gaein' to tell me something,' said Mrs. Falconer to herself. 'Will
't be aboot the puir barfut crater they ca' Shargar, or will 't be aboot
the piece he pat intil 's pooch?'

'Weel, laddie?' she said aloud, willing to encourage him.

'Is 't true that my gran'father was the blin' piper o' Portcloddie?'

'Ay, laddie; true eneuch. Hoots, na! nae yer grandfather, but yer
father's grandfather, laddie--my husband's father.'

'Hoo cam that aboot?'

'Weel, ye see, he was oot i' the Forty-five; and efter the battle o'
Culloden, he had to rin for 't. He wasna wi' his ain clan at the battle,
for his father had broucht him to the Lawlands whan he was a lad; but he
played the pipes till a reg'ment raised by the Laird o' Portcloddie.
And for ooks (weeks) he had to hide amo' the rocks. And they tuik a' his
property frae him. It wasna muckle--a wheen hooses, and a kailyard or
twa, wi' a bit fairmy on the tap o' a cauld hill near the sea-shore;
but it was eneuch and to spare; and whan they tuik it frae him, he had
naething left i' the warl' but his sons. Yer grandfather was born the
verra day o' the battle, and the verra day 'at the news cam, the mother
deed. But yer great grandfather wasna lang or he merried anither wife.
He was sic a man as ony woman micht hae been prood to merry. She was the
dother (daughter