e house when
the matron and Kate, open-eyed with wonder, hastened up to know what was
the meaning of this departure from the regular order of things. Baubie
heard their approach, and only sang the louder. She had a good and by no
means unmusical voice, which the rest had rather improved; and by the
time the authorities arrived on the scene there was an audience gathered
round the daring Baubie, who, with shoes and stockings off and the Rob
Roy tartan half unfastened, was standing by her bed, singing at the
pitch of her voice. The words could be heard down the stairs:

Hark! I hear the bugles sounding: 'tis the signal for the fight.
Now, may God protect us, mother, as He ever does the right.

"Baubie Wishart," cried the astonished mistress, "what do you mean?"

The singer was just at the close of a verse:

Hear the battle-cry of Freedom! how it swells upon the air!
Yes, we'll rally round the standard or we'll perish nobly there.

She finished it off deliberately, and turned her bright eyes and flushed
face toward the speaker.

"Who gave you leave, Baubie Wishart," went on the angry matron, "to make
yon noise? You ought to think shame of such conduct, singing your
good-for-nothing street-songs like a tinkler. One would think ye would
feel glad never to hear of such things again. Let me have no more of
this, do ye hear? I just wonder what Miss Mackenzie would say to
ye!--Kate, stop here till they are all bedded and turn off yon gas."

Long before the gas was extinguished Baubie had retired into darkness
beneath the bed-clothes, rage and mortification swelling her small
heart. Good-for-nothing street-songs! Tinkler! Mrs. Duncan's scornful
epithets rang in her ears and cut her to the quick. She lay awake,
trembling with anger and indignation, until long after Kate had followed
the younger fry to rest, and their regular breathing, which her ears
listened for till they caught it from every bed, warned her that the
weary occupants were safely asleep: then she sat up in bed. The
moonlight was streaming into the room through the uncurtained window,
and lit up her tumbled head and hot face. After a cautious pause she
stepped out on the floor and went round the foot of her bed to the
window. She knelt down on the floor, as if she were in search of
something, and began feeling with her hand on the lower part of the
shutter. Then, close to the floor, and in a place where they were likely
to escape detection, she marked clearly