ew his stool up beside the Shepherd's knee and
said: "Won't you please tell us about Rob Roy, Cousin Campbell?
If he's an ancestor of mine, I ought to know more about him."

"Oh, do, Father," echoed the Twins, planting their stools beside
the other knee. Even Tam was interested. He sat on the hearth in
front of the Shepherd, looking up into his face as if he
understood every word.

The Shepherd gazed thoughtfully into the fire for a moment; then he
said: "I can tell you what my grandsire told me, and he got it from
his grandsire, so it must be true. In the beginning Rob Roy was as
staunch a man as any, and held his own property like other gentlemen.
Craig Royston was the name of his place, and fine and proud he was of
it, too. He was a gey shrewd man in the cattle-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. You can well believe that Rob was not the
man to take such dealings with patience. If the Duke had not been so
hasty, Rob would more than likely have got hold of McDonald and made
him pay either out of his purse or out of his skin, but he did neither
the one nor the other. Instead he left his home and took his clan with
him into the mountains and became the terror of the whole
country-side."

"Wasn't he a good man?" asked Jean, gazing at her father with
round eyes.

"Well," said the Shepherd, "not just what you'd call pious,
maybe, and it cannot be said that he was aye regular at the kirk.
It's true he never forgot an enemy, but he never forgot a
kindness either and was loyal and true to them that were true to
him."

"What did he do when they weren't true to him?" asked Jock.

"He made them wish they had been," replied the Shepherd mildly.

"But what made the Duke of Montrose take away Craig Royston?"
asked Jock. "Didn't he have a great big place of his own?"

"Aye," answered Robin, "but what difference does that make? The
more land he had, the more land he wanted, the same as other
lairds. Be that as it may, Craig Royston was certainly taken away
from Rob, and a bitter man it made of him."

"Why, it's just like ourselves and the Auld Laird," cried Jean.
"He's going