lectual powers. The jury which afterwards sat upon
her returned their verdict in accordance with that opinion.

It was impossible, of course, to prevent some of all this leaking into
the kitchen, the nursery, and the stable. In the first-mentioned spot,
Quin remarked to the housemaid,--"Sure, it's a quare evint entirely,"
with which sentiment the housemaid agreed.

"Aunt Moss is a buster," was Junkie's ambiguous opinion, in which Flo
and the black doll coincided.

"Tonal'," said Roderick, as he groomed the bay horse, "the old wumman
iss a fery tough person."

To which "Tonal'" assented, "she iss, what-e-ver."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

ELEPHANTS AGAIN--FOLLOWED BY SOMETHING MORE AWFUL.

There came a rainy day at last at Kinlossie House. Such days will come
at times in human experience, both in metaphor and fact. At present we
state a fact.

"It will bring up the fush," was Roderick's remark, as he paused in the
operation of cleaning harness to look through the stable door on the
landscape; "an' that wull please Maister MacRummle."

"It will pe good for the gress too, an' that will please Muss Mully,"
said Donald, now permanently appointed to the stables.

"H'm! she wull pe carin' less for the gress, poy, than she wass used to
do," returned the groom. "It iss my opeenion that they wull pe all
wantin' to co away sooth pefore long."

We refer to the above opinions because they were shared by the party
assembled in Barret's room, which was still retained as a snuggery,
although its occupant was fully restored to normal health and vigour.

"You'll be sure to get `that salmon' next time you try, after all this
rain, MacRummle," said Mabberly. "At least, I hope you will before we
leave."

"Ay, and you must have another try with the repeater on the Eagle Cliff,
Mac. It would never do to leave a lone widdy, as Quin calls it, after
murdering the husband."

"Perhaps I _may_ have another day there," answered the old gentleman,
with a pleased smile; for although they roasted him a good deal for
mistaking an eagle for a raven, and only gave him credit for a "fluke,"
it was evident that he congratulated himself not a little on his
achievement.

"Archie is having an awful time skinning and stuffing it," said Eddie,
who sat by the window dressing trout flies.

Junkie, who was occupied at another window, mending the top of his rod,
remarked that nothing seemed to give Archie so much pleasure as skinning
and stuffi