Macleod of Dare

ke two young fawns in their careless play. Miss Carry, indeed, seemed bent on tantalizing him by the manner in which she petted and teased and caressed her sister-

pocket-handkerchief, and bind that grievous wound, and condole with the poor victim as though she were suffering untold agonies. It was a pretty sort of idleness. It seemed to harmonize with this still, beautiful summer day, and the soft green foliage around, and the still air that

cious Carry relen

oing to the Zoologic

have seen everything I want

walk across the Park with

uld," said he, "if you h

ss White, calmly. She might just as well be wa

e three of t

e insufferably stupid. It is very hard that you should be expected to make a character look natural

ion without experiencing a sharp twinge of annoyance. He did not stay to ask hims

take the part at al

ery fortunate in other respects. I never had to go through the drudgery of the provinces, though they say that is the best school possible for an actress. And I am sur

. It was, indeed, the least he could s

hey like it because it is pretty and familiar. And people pretend to be very cynical at present-they like things with 'no nonsense about them;' and I suppose this son of

. Siddons: that's it," s

stead, he praised the noble elms and chestnuts of the Park, the broad white lake, the flow

very fond of animal

it is merely that the hawks and weasels and other vermin kill off the sickly birds: but I do know that we have less disease among our birds than I hear of anywhere else. I have sometimes shot a weasel, it is true, when I have run across him as he was hunting a rabbit-you cannot help doing that if

of surprise in her eyes was eloquen

erhaps it was the stories of the old women. The serpent is very mysterious to the people in the Highlands: they have stories of watersnakes in the lochs: and if you get a nest of seven adders with one white one, you boil the white one,

raid of in the Highlands?" said Miss White

e, and he bites your boot, what then? He cannot hurt you. But suppose you are out after the deer, and you are crawling along th

perhaps it was only an

But one day John Begg, that is the schoolmaster, went behind a rock to get a light for his pipe; and he put his head close to the rock to be out of the wind; and then he thought he stirred something with his cap; and the next moment the adder fell on to his shoulder, and

," she said, quickly. "What is

age in a window recess on my landing. At first it was a little amusing; but the constant yelp-it was too much for me. 'Pritty poal! pritty poal!' I did not mind so much; but when the ugly brute, with its beady eyes and its

as having been ther

her nervously-like a

boots at it; it was no use. I got up a third time, and went out. The window, that looks into a back yard, was open. Then I opened the parrot's cage. But the fo

yed Carry, who had been quite

e was no use asking him. All he could say was

to withdraw a bit from him. "I don't believe in the Macleods having become civilized, peaceab

Macleods; and you must really believe they were no worse than the others of the sa

said, "if it is one of

ys forgiving anybody. But again Hugh Macdonald engaged in a conspiracy; and then Donald Gorm Mor thought he would put an end to the nonsense. What did he do? He put his nephew into a deep and foul dungeon-so the story says-and left him without food or water for a whole day. Then there was salt beef lowered into the dungeon; and Macdonald he devoured the salt beef; for he was starving with hunger. Then they left him alone. But you can im

aid she, with decision, "for de

thout Culloden. Even without Culloden we should have had penny newspapers all the same; and tourist boats

be trusted," said she, pretending

hed the gate

ints for your dresses from the birds-you would never have thought of

like, Carry," said she; and cer

an a school boy's delight over the wonders of this strange place. That he was exceedingly fond of animals-always barring the two he had mentioned-was soon abundantly shown. He talked to them as though the mute inqu

vety horns held proudly in the air, "what part of the Highlands have you come from? And

p to the bars, and regarded him with those large, clear, gray-green eyes-so different from

the heather, munching the young gr

ly around them. Ever and anon they jerked their heads into an attitude of attention, and the golden brown eye with

n't you like to have one sniff of a sea-breeze, and a look round for

owly flapped them once or twice, while

our young ones, you could make short work of them with those big wings. Or would you like to have a battle-royal with a seal, and try wh

a cage devoted to sea-birds, nea

her be out at Ru-Treshanish, even if it was blowing hard, and there was rain about. There was a de

there was an hour or two with nothing to do, here was plenty of occupation. Bu

king in at the serpents," sa

ated for

think I will not g

ill see they are not such terrible creatu

was silent. He entered the last of the three. He stood in the m

, with her sister, was leaning over the rail. "Look at his splendi

e eyes of the animal-the lidless eyes, with their perpetual glassy stare. He had thought at first they were closed; but now he saw that that opaque yellow substance was covered by a glassy coating, while in the cen

conda is poisonous at

east in a jungle," said he, "wh

ssed on from that case to the others unwillingly. The room was still. Most of the snakes would have seemed dead but fo

nuous body glided along the edge of the dish again, the frog meanwhile being too paralyzed with fear to move. A second afterward the frog, apparently recovering, sprung clean out of the basin; but it was only to alight on the backs of two or three of the reptiles lying coiled up together. It made another spring, and got into a corner among some grass, But along that side of the case another of those small, flat, yellow marked heads was slowly creeping along, propelled by the squirming body; and again the frog made a sudden spring, this time leaping once more into the shallow water, where, it stood and panted, with its eyes dilated. And

oice-and he did not turn to look at them a

s place. There was a gate close by; he proposed they should go out by that. As he walked back with them to South Bank, they chatted about many of the animals-the two girls in especial being much interested in certain pheasants, whose colors of plumage they thought would look very pretty i