usical education of Clan-Alpine's warriors. The
performance was not enlivening, and as the monotonous and melancholy
sing-song that kept time to the oars told its story in Gaelic, all
that the English strangers could make out was an occasional reference
to Jura or Scarba or Isla. It was, indeed, the song of an exile shut
up in "sea-worn Mull," who was complaining of the wearisome look of
the neighboring islands.

"But why do you sing such Gaelic as that, John?" said young Lavender
confidently. "I should have thought a man in your position--the last
of the Hebridean bards--would have known the classical Gaelic. Don't
you know the classical Gaelic?"

"There iss only the wan sort of Kallic, and it is a ferry goot sort of
Kallic," said the piper with some show of petulance.

"Do you mean to tell me you don't know your own tongue? Do you
not know what the greatest of all the bards wrote about your own
island?--'O et praesidium et dulce decus meum, _agus_, Tityre tu patulae
recubans sub tegmine _Styornoway_, Arma virumque cano, _Macklyoda_ et
_Borvabost_ sub tegmine fagi?'"

Not only John the Piper, but all the men behind him, began to look
amazed and sorely troubled; and all the more so that Ingram--who had
picked up more Gaelic words than his friend--came to his assistance,
and began to talk to him in this unknown tongue. They heard references
in the conversation to persons and things with which they were
familiar in their own language, but still accompanied by much more
they could not understand.

The men now began to whisper awe-stricken questions to each other; and
at last John the Piper could not restrain his curiosity. "What in ta
name of Kott is tat sort of Kallic?" he asked, with some look of fear
in his eyes.

"You are not much of a student, John," said Lavender carelessly,
"but still, a man in your position should know something of your own
language. A bard, a poet, and not know the classical form of your own
tongue!"

"Is it, ta Welsh Kallic?" cried John in desperation, for he knew that
the men behind him would carry the story of his ignorance all over
Borvabost.

"The Welsh Gaelic? No. I see you will have to go to school again."

"There iss no more Kallic in ta schools," said the piper, eagerly
seizing the excuse. "It iss Miss Sheila, she will hef put away all ta
Kallic from ta schools."

"But you were born half a century before Miss Sheila: how is it you
neglected to learn that form of Gaelic that