eral--if he dared.
"Well?"

"Besom." And he was not at all ashamed, for a Scot never uses this
word without a ring of fondness and admiration in his voice, as of one
who gives the world to understand that he quite disapproves of this
audacious woman, wife or daughter of his, but is proud of her all the
time. It is indeed a necessity of his nature for a Scot to have husks
of reproach containing kernels of compliment, so that he may let out
his heart and yet preserve his character as an austere person,
destitute of vanity and sentiment.

"Accept your servant's thanks, my General. I am highly honoured." And
Kate made a sweeping courtesy, whereupon they both laughed merrily; and
a log blazing up suddenly made an old Carnegie smile who had taken the
field for Queen Mary, and was the very man to have delighted in a besom.

"When I was here in June"--and the General stretched himself in a deep
red leather chair--"I stood a while one evening watching a fair-haired,
blue-eyed little maid who was making a daisy chain and singing to
herself in a garden. Her mother came out from the cottage, and, since
she did not see me, devoured the child with eyes of love. Then
something came into her mind--perhaps that the good man would soon be
home for supper; she rushed forward and seized the child, as if it had
been caught in some act of mischief. 'Come into the hoose, this
meenut, ye little beesom, an' say yir carritches. What's the chief end
o' man?'"

"Could she have been so accomplished at that age?" Kate inquired, with
interest. "Are you sure about the term of endearment? Was the child
visibly flattered?"

"She caught my eye as they passed in, and flung me a smile like one
excusing her mother's fondness. But Davidson hears better things, for
as soon as he appears the younger members of a family are taken from
their porridge and set to their devotions.

"'What are ye glowerin' at there, ye little cutty? Toom (empty) yir
mooth this meenut and say the twenty-third Psalm to the minister.'"

"Life seems full of incident, and the women make the play. What about
the men? Are they merely a chorus?"

"A stranger spending a week in one of our farm-houses would be ready to
give evidence in a court of justice that he had never seen women so
domineering or men so submissive as in Drumtochty.

"And why? Because the housewife who sits in church as if butter would
n't melt in her mouth speaks with much fluency and vigour at h