t_," I said, "_is all!_"

But I was instantly overwhelmed by the rush of a
living wave.

"No, no," cried the children, throwing themselves
upon me, "you must tell us what became of Rob
Roy--of the Bailie--of Dougal!"

These demands came from the boys.

"And if Diana married Frank, or went to the
convent?" interjected Sweetheart.

"Well," I said, "I can soon answer all these
questions. Sir Frederick died soon after, but
before his end he relieved his daughter from her
promise to enter a convent. She married Mr. Frank
Osbaldistone instead."

"And lived happy ever after?" added Maid Margaret,
who was at the "fairy princess" stage of
literature.

"Except when she got cross with him," commented Sir
Toady, an uncompromising realist, with pessimistic
views on womenkind.

"And Rob Roy held his ground among his native
mountains until he died."

"Tell us about the Bailie," said Hugh John; "I
liked the Bailie--he's jolly!"

I told him that he was far from being alone in that
opinion.

"The Bailie," I answered, "lived, as the Maid says,
happily ever after, having very wisely married his
servant Mattie. He carried on all the northern
affairs of Osbaldistone and Tresham, now a greater
commercial house than ever, and lived to be Lord
Provost of the city of Glasgow."

"Let Glasgow flourish!" cried Sir Toady,
spontaneously. And the audience concluded the
fourth tale and last from _Rob Roy_ with a very
passable imitation of a Highland yell.

THE END OF THE LAST TALE FROM "ROB ROY."

RED CAP TALES

TOLD FROM

THE ANTIQUARY

THE FIRST TALE FROM "THE ANTIQUARY"

THE children lay prone on the floor of the library
in various positions of juvenile comfort, watching
the firewood in the big wide grate sparkle and
crackle, or the broad snowflakes "spat" against the
window-panes, where they stuck awhile as if gummed,
and then began reluctantly to trickle down. As Sir
Toady Lion said, "It was certainly a nice day on
which to stop IN!"

The choice of the book from which to tell the next
Red Cap Tale had been a work of some difficulty.
Hugh John had demanded _Ivanhoe_, chiefly because
there was a chapter in it about shooting with the
bow, the which he had read in his school reader
when he ought to have be