"You forget, Flora, your trip to the mountain, without my consent?"
whispered Lyndsay, mischievously.

Flora coloured, stammered, and at last broke into a hearty laugh,--"I
was too great a coward, John, to wear them with becoming dignity. If
that was wearing the breeches, I am sure I disgraced them with my worse
than womanish fears. I will never put them on again."

"My dear wife, I'll take good care you shan't. When a Scotchman has any
breeks to wear, he likes to keep them all to himself."

"Ah! we well know what a jealous, monopolising set you are. Let any one
attempt to interfere with your rights, and, like your sturdy national
emblem, you are armed to the teeth," said Flora, as she ran off to order
tea.

CHAPTER XXIV.

A VISIT TO THE SHIP OWNERS.

Early in the afternoon of the following day our family party set off to
pay their promised visit. The weather was delightful, and Flora was in
an ecstasy of high spirits, as they turned from the narrow streets of
Leith into a beautiful lane, bounded on each side by hawthorn hedges,
redolent with the perfume of the sweetbrier and honeysuckle. The breath
of new-mown hay floated on the air, and the lilac and laburnum, in full
blossom, waved their graceful boughs above the white palings which
surrounded many a pleasant country retreat, in which the tired citizen,
after the toils of the day in the busy marts of commerce, returned to
enjoy a comfortable dish of tea with his family.

A walk of half-a-mile brought them to the suburban retreat of the worthy
Mr. Gregg, and he was at the green garden-gate to receive his guests,
his honest, saucy face, radiant with an honest welcome.

"I was fearful ye wud not keep your promise," said he: "my youngsters
ha' been on the look-out for you for this hour."

Here he pushed the giggling youngsters forward, in the shape of two
bouncing, rosy-faced school-girls, who were playing at bo-peep behind
papa's broad blue back, and whose red cheeks grew crimson with blushes
as he presented them to his guests.

James Hawke seemed to think the merry girls, who were of his own age,
well worth looking at, if you might judge by the roguish sparkling of
his fine black eyes, as he bounded off with them to be introduced to the
strawberry-beds, and all the other attractions of the worthy citizen's
garden.

It was a large, old-fashioned house, which had seen better days, and
stood on a steep sloping hill, commanding a beautiful view of Ed