tance. Even Bruce, his
collie dog, sat close beside him, poking him occasionally with his
nose, that he might have a share in his master's glory. And as for
Granny, she stopped every few moments in her work of straining and
putting away the milk to exclaim:

"Eh, eh, but it's Granny would be the lonesome old body this day
without her boy!"

The little candle on the bare, pine table shed only a small ring of
light, and the goblin shadows danced away from the wide hearth into the
corners of the room. In the darkest one stood an old four-post bed
with a billowy feather mattress, covered by a tartan quilt. Beside it
hung a quantity of rough coats and caps, and beneath them stood the
"boot-jack," an instrument for drawing off the long, high-topped boots,
and one Scotty yearned to be big enough to use. In another corner
stood Granny's spinning-wheel, which whizzed cheerily the whole long
day, and beside it was a low bench with a tin wash-basin, a cake of
home-made soap and a coarse towel. There was very little furniture
besides, except a few chairs, the big table, the clock with the long
chains and the noisy pendulum, the picture of Queen Victoria, and the
big, high cupboard into which Granny was putting the supper dishes.
This last article of furniture was always of great interest to Scotty.
For away up on the top shelf, made doubly valuable by being
unattainable, stood some wonderful pieces of crockery; among them a
sugar-bowl that Granny had brought from the old country, and which had
blue boys and girls dancing in a gay ring about it. Then there was the
glass jar with the tin lid in which Grandaddy kept some mysterious
papers; one piece was called money. Scotty had actually seen it once,
in Grandaddy's hands, and wondered secretly why such ugly, crumpled,
green paper should be considered so precious.

"An' would Peter Lauchie not be coming across the swamp with you, _m'
eudail bheg_?" his grandmother was asking for the fifth time.

"Noh!" The boy's answer was quick and disdainful. Somehow he would
rather Granny would not pat his head and lavish endearing Gaelic
epithets upon him to-night; such things had been very soothing in the
past when he was sleepy and wanted to go to bed; but now he was a big
boy, going to school, and had fought and defeated in single combat one
of the MacDonalds' enemies, and he could not be expected to endure
petting.

"Why, Granny!" he cried, "I would be knowing the road all right