Or plaintive singing.

Great were the marvellous stories told
Of Ossian heroes,
Giants, and witches and young men bold
Seeking adventures,
Winning Kings' daughters, and guarded gold
Only with valor.

The House of Ragnor was a large and very picturesque edifice. It was
built of red and white sandstone which Time had covered with a
heathery lichen, softening the whole into a shade of greenish grey.
Many minds and many hands had fashioned it, for above its central door
was the date, 1688, which would presuppose that it had been built
from revenues coming as a reward for opposition to the Stuarts. It had
been altered and enlarged by nearly every occupant, was many-roomed,
and surrounded by a large garden, full of such small fruits as could
ripen in the short summers, and of such flowers and shrubs as could
live through the long winters. In sheltered situations, there were
even hardy roses, and a royal plenty of England's spring flowers
sweetened many months of the year. A homely garden, where berries and
roses grew together and privet hedges sheltered peas and lettuce, and
tulips and wall-flowers did not disdain the proximity of household
vegetables.

Doubtless the Ragnors had been jarls in old Norwegian times, but in
1853 such memories had been forgotten, and Conall Ragnor was quite
content with his reputation of being the largest trader in Orkney, and
a very wealthy man. Physically he was of towering stature. His hair
was light brown, and rather curly; his eyes large and bright blue, his
face broad and rosy. He had great bodily and mental vigor, he was
blunt in speech, careless about his dress, and simple in all his ways.
His Protestantism was of the most decided character, but he was not a
Presbyterian. Presbyterianism was a new thing on the face of the
earth; he had been "authoritatively told, the Apostles were
Episcopalians."

"My soul has received no orders to go to thy Presbyterian Church," he
said to the young Calvinist minister who asked him to do so. "When the
order comes, then that may happen which has never happened before."

Yet in spite of his pronounced nationality, and his Episcopal faith,
he married Rahal Gordon from the braes of Moray; a Highland Scotch
woman and a strict Calvinist. What compact had been made between them
no one knew, but it had been sufficient to prevent all religious
disputes during a period of twenty-six years. If Rahal Ragnor had any
respectable excuse, s