ne'er sae black,
Gie her but the name o' siller,
Set her up on Tintock tap
An' the wind'll blaw a man till her.

Be a lassie ne'er sae fair,
Gin she hinna penny-siller,
A flea may fell her in the air
Ere a man be evened till her.'

"I would like fine to see Miss Jean get a guid man, for she's no' a bad
lassie, but I doot she'll never manage't."

"Oh, Beller, you do take an 'opeless view of things. I think it's
because you wear black so much. Now I must say I like a bit o' bright
colour. I think it gives one bright thoughts."

"I aye wear black," said Bella firmly, as she carried the supper dishes
to the scullery, "and then, as the auld wifie said, 'Come daith, come
sacrament, I'm ready!'"

CHAPTER XIV

"Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon, may a man buy for a
remuneration?"--_Comedy of Errors_.

The living-room at The Rigs was the stage of many plays. Its uses ranged
from the tent of a menagerie or the wigwam of an Indian brave to the
Forest of Arden.

This December night it was a "wood near Athens," and to Mhor, if to no
one else, it faithfully represented the original. That true Elizabethan
needed no aids to his imagination. "This is a wood," said Mhor, and a
wood it was. "Is all our company here?" and to him the wood was peopled
by Quince and Snug, by Bottom the weaver, by Puck and Oberon. Titania
and her court he reluctantly admitted were necessary to the play, but he
did not try to visualise them, regarding them privately as blots. The
love-scenes between Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, were
omitted, because Jock said they were "_awful_ silly."

It was Friday evening, so Jock had put off learning his lessons till the
next day, and, as Bully Bottom, was calling over the names of his cast.

"Are we all met?"

"Pat, pat," said Mhor, who combined in his person all the other parts,
"and here's a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal; this green
plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tiring-house; and we
will do it in action as we will do it before the duke."

Pamela Reston, in her usual place, the corner of the sofa beside the
fire, threaded her needle with a bright silk thread, and watched the
players amusedly.

"Did you ever think," she asked Jean, who sat on a footstool beside
her--a glowing figure in a Chinese coat given her by Pamela, engaged
rather incongruously in darning one of Jock's stockings--"did you ever
think what i