ed the
opening skirl of the pipes! Trooper gave a whoop of joy, and ran back
waving the good news which had already arrived on the evening breeze.
Marmaduke sent one of the boys flying into the Hall to see if the
programme would not wait another moment, but he was just a second too
late. The opening chorus, "All's Well," was started, and already they
could hear Joanna's voice on the high notes.

"Never mind," cried Marmaduke as Trooper ran up breathless, "he'll come
in as neat as a tack right after this piece, and we couldn't a' got any
more into the Hall anyway," he added gloatingly, "even if he'd been
playin' all day."

He was certainly playing now, and most enticingly. It was that
teasing, alluring lilt, "Tullochgorum," and Trooper went out into the
middle of the road and danced the Highland Fling to it, while Marmaduke
took his place opposite, hopping about in a cloud of dust, on his one
foot and holding up his peg leg in a very elegant fashion as a dainty
young lady might hold her train.

"Say, he'll bust the church windows when he's passin'!" cried Trooper,
stopping to listen to the music soaring louder and clearer. The night
was warm, and the doors and windows of the church were all wide open
and Piper Lauchie was making as much noise as a company of massed bands
marching past.

"It's turned out better than we intended," said Marmaduke in improper
glee. "Why didn't we think of it?"

Now, Piper Lauchie had not been in Orchard Glen that summer, and the
last occasion upon which he had visited the village had been on his way
home from a picnic, under rather merry circumstances which left his
memory of the place pleasantly hazy. Trooper had cautioned him to
march right into the hall on his arrival, explaining that the building
was on his left hand side after he crossed the bridge, and that he
could not miss it for it would be all lit up and he and Marmaduke would
be at the door to see him march triumphantly inside. So far he had
followed his instructions to the letter. He tuned up half way down the
hill and came marching across the bridge, and then the Dreadful Thing
happened.

It was almost dark by this time and surely neither the Piper nor
Trooper nor Marmaduke was to blame that the Methodist church should be
placed on the left hand side after you crossed the bridge, and that it
should be all lit up so that the Piper could not miss it! And he did
not miss it, either. The sight of the rows of heads