perfect in every detail.

The scones are of unusual lightness, also. I should think they would
scarcely weigh more than four, perhaps even five, to a pound; but I am
aware that the casual traveller, who eats only at hotels, and never has
the privilege of entering feudal castles, will be slow to believe this
estimate, particularly just after breakfast.

Salemina always describes a Scotch scone as an aspiring but unsuccessful
soda-biscuit of the New England sort. Stevenson, in writing of that
dense black substance, inimical to life, called Scotch bun, says that
the patriotism that leads a Scotsman to eat it will hardly desert him in
any emergency. Salemina thinks that the scone should be bracketed with
the bun (in description, of course, never in the human stomach), and
says that, as a matter of fact, 'th' unconquer'd Scot' of old was not
only clad in a shirt of mail, but well fortified within when he went
forth to warfare after a meal of oatmeal and scones. She insists that
the spear which would pierce the shirt of mail would be turned aside
and blunted by the ordinary scone of commerce; but what signifies the
opinion of a woman who eats sugar on her porridge?

Considering the air of liberal hospitality that hangs about the castle
tea-table, I wonder that our friends do not oftener avail themselves
of its privileges and allow us to do so; but on all dark, foggy, or
inclement days, or whenever they tire of the sands, everybody persists
in taking tea at Bide-a-Wee Cottage.

We buy our tea of the Pettybaw grocer, some of our cups are cracked,
the teapot is of earthenware, Miss Grieve disapproves of all social
tea-fuddles, and shows it plainly when she brings in the tray, and the
room is so small that some of us overflow into the hall or the garden;
it matters not; there is some fatal charm in our humble hospitality.
At four o'clock one of us is obliged to be, like Sister Anne, on the
housetop; and if company approaches, she must descend and speed to
the plumber's for six pennyworth extra of cream. In most well-ordered
British households Miss Grieve would be requested to do this speeding,
but both her mind and her body move too slowly for such domestic crises;
and then, too, her temper has to be kept as unruffled as possible, so
that she will cut the bread and butter thin. This she generally does if
she has not been 'fair doun-hadden wi' wark'; but the washing of her
own spinster cup and plate, together with the incident