at a branch of the
MacDonald family own the whole place and are great people there--lords
of the isle. His name was MacDonald too, though his family were only
peasants--clan connections, or whatever they call that sort of thing. I
don't understand a bit, and I didn't like asking him to explain. It was
too delicate a subject, though he appeared to be rather proud of his
origin. Scotch peasants are apparently quite different from other
peasants. You'll have to study up the differences and make lots of notes
for the book. I'm no good at anything with dialect, or character sort of
parts. You wouldn't think now, though, that Ian Somerled had ever been a
peasant would you? He talked a lot about his father and
mother--evidently he adored them. He said they'd be miracles anywhere
out of Scotland, but there were many like them there. According to him
there was nothing they hadn't read or couldn't quote by the yard, from
Burns and Scott back to Shakespeare. That was the way he was brought up,
and instead of wanting him to go on crofting like themselves, they were
enchanted because he drew pictures on their unpainted doors and their
whitewashed walls. They saved all their pennies to have him educated as
an artist, and encouraged him--quite different from peasant parents in
books. One day the 'meenister' called, and saw the boy's pictures. He
thought them something out of the ordinary--pictures of castles and
cathedrals they were, with people going in and coming out, and portraits
of friends, and historical characters. After that he took a great
interest in Ian, and taught him Latin and the few other things his
wonderful parents didn't happen to know. When Ian was about thirteen or
fourteen, the 'meenister' tried to get help for the little MacDonald
from the great MacDonald, a disagreeable, cranky old man with one
daughter. They thought they owned the whole world instead of one tiny
island, and the man wouldn't do anything for the child. He simply poured
contempt on 'clan ties.'"

"That doesn't sound like the great folk of Scotland," said Basil, who
for weeks had been reading little else but Scottish history, Scottish
fiction, and Scottish poetry, in order to get himself in the right frame
of mind for writing "the book." "I haven't come across a single instance
of their being purse-proud or snobbish."

"These weren't purse-proud, because their purses had nothing in them to
be proud of," Aline explained. "Their branch of the MacDon