ssible shelter
for a Mrs. Macstronachlacher within a quarter of a mile. What made
the remark more unfortunate was the fact that, although she had on a
different dress and bonnet, the person interrogated was the Disagreeable
Woman; but Francesca is particularly slow in discerning resemblances.
She would have gone on mechanically asking for new-laid eggs, had I not
caught her eye and held it sternly. The foe looked at us suspiciously
for a moment (Francesca's hats are not easily forgotten), and then
vanished up the path, to tell the people at Crummylowe, I suppose, that
their grounds were invested by marauding strangers whose curiosity was
manifestly the outgrowth of a republican government.

As she disappeared in one direction, we walked slowly in the other; and
just as we reached the corner of the pasture where two stone walls meet,
and where a group of oaks gives grateful shade, we heard children's
voices.

"No, no!" cried somebody; "it must be still higher at this end, for the
tower--this is where the king will sit. Help me with this heavy one,
Rafe. Dandie, mind your foot. Why don't you be making the flag for the
ship?--and do keep the Wrig away from us till we finish building!"

Chapter XVII. Playing Sir Patrick Spens.

'O lang, lang may the ladyes sit
Wi' their face into their hand,
Before they see Sir Patrick Spens
Come sailing to the strand.'

Sir Patrick Spens.

We forced our toes into the crevices of the wall and peeped stealthily
over the top. Two boys of eight or ten years, with two younger children,
were busily engaged in building a castle. A great pile of stones had
been hauled to the spot, evidently for the purpose of mending the wall,
and these were serving as rich material for sport. The oldest of the
company, a bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked boy in an Eton jacket and broad
white collar, was obviously commander-in-chief; and the next in size,
whom he called Rafe, was a laddie of eight, in kilts. These two looked
as if they might be scions of the aristocracy, while Dandie and the Wrig
were fat little yokels of another sort. The miniature castle must have
been the work of several mornings, and was worthy of the respectful but
silent admiration with which we gazed upon it; but as the last stone
was placed in the tower, the master builder looked up and spied our
interested eyes peering at him over the wall. We were properly abashed,
and ducked our heads discreetly at once, but w