ant duties over, we looked into the cheerful glow of the turf
sods while I read aloud Thackeray's Peg of Limavady. He spells the town
with two d's, by the way, to insure its being rhymed properly with Paddy
and daddy.

'Riding from Coleraine
(Famed for lovely Kitty),
Came a Cockney bound
Unto Derry city;
Weary was his soul,
Shivering and sad he
Bumped along the road
Leads to Limavaddy.

. . . .

Limavaddy inn's
But a humble baithouse,
Where you may procure
Whisky and potatoes;
Landlord at the door
Gives a smiling welcome
To the shivering wights
Who to his hotel come.
Landlady within
Sits and knits a stocking,
With a wary foot
Baby's cradle rocking.

. . . .

Presently a maid
Enters with the liquor
(Half a pint of ale
Frothing in a beaker).
Gads! I didn't know
What my beating heart meant:
Hebe's self I thought
Entered the apartment.
As she came she smiled,
And the smile bewitching,
On my word and honour,
Lighted all the kitchen!

. . . .

This I do declare,
Happy is the laddy
Who the heart can share
Of Peg of Limavaddy.
Married if she were,
Blest would be the daddy
Of the children fair
Of Peg of Limavaddy.
Beauty is not rare
In the land of Paddy,
Fair beyond compare
Is Peg of Limavaddy.'

This cheered us a bit; but the wind sighed in the trees, the rain
dripped on the window panes, and we felt for the first time a
consciousness of home-longing. Francesca sat on a low stool, looking
into the fire, Ronald's last letter in her lap, and it was easy indeed
to see that her heart was in the Highlands. She has been giving us a few
extracts from the communication, an unusual proceeding, as Ronald, in
his ordinary correspondence, is evidently not a quotable person. We
smiled over his account of a visit to his old parish of Inchcaldy in
Fifeshire. There is a certain large orphanage in the vicinity, in which
we had all taken an interest, chiefly because our friends the Macraes of
Pettybaw House were among its guardians.

It seems that Lady Rowardennan of the Castle had promised the orphans,
en bloc, that those who passed through an entire year without once
f