The Lilac Sunbonnet: A Love Story

use under the windows gave any sign of life. In them the bees had begun to hum at earliest dawn, an hour and a half before the sun looked over the crest of Ben Gairn

cool and wide sitting-room, where the brown mahogany-cased eight- day clock kept up an uneq

ded, pale- petalled monthly roses nodding and peeping within the opened window-frames. Sweet it was with a great peace, every chair covered with old sprigged chintz, flowers of the wood and heather from the hill set in china vases about it. The

me looke

eping, grandmot

ooked up with

i' the care o' yer gran'faither-sic a handling, him nae better nor a bairn, an' you a bit feckless hempie wi'

up and put her arms

it's just because I hae been sae lang at the blanket-washin', seein' till that hizzy Meg. An' ken ye what I saw!-ane o' the black dragoons in full retre

the white silk top-knots trembled. "No, nor I'm nane sae auld nayther. The gudeman in the corner there, he's auld and dune gin'ye like, but no me-n

And she shook her head with an air of triumph. W

muslin band which she wore across her brow wrinkleless and straight, wher

e, so white and slender was it in spite of the hollows which ran into a triangle at t

oot till exerceese, but rale sodgers wi' sabre-tashies to their heels and spurs like pitawtie dreels. Aye, sirs, but that was before

he day-a stranger," sai

common sense! Saw a minister an' ne'er thocht, belike, o' sayin' cheep ony mair nor if he had been a wutterick [weasel]. An' what like

hould ken, when all that I saw of him was but h

e the day it wasna sodger or minister ayther that wad hae run frae the sicht o' me. But a minist

her, I said nothi

kep [cap], the French yin o' Flanders lawn trimmed wi' Valenceenes lace that Captain Wildfeather, of his Majesty's-But na, I'

not smile when she drew it out. She was accustomed to her grandmother's ways. She too often felt the cavalier looking out from under her Puritan teaching; for the wild

aits and puckers, granny tried it on in various ways,

n but a lassie. Aye me, it's forty-five years since Ailie Gordon, as I was then, wed wi' Walter Skirving o' Craig Ronald (noo o' his ain chammer ne

is chair, a shawl over his knees even in this day of fervent heat, looking out dumbly on the drowsin

nny 'rig-an'-fur' stockin' that I knitted mysel' frae the cast on o' the ower-fauld [over-fold] to the bonny white forefit that sets aff the blue sae weel. Walter Skirving could button his knee-breeks withoot bendin' his back-that nane could do but the king's son himsel'; an' sic a

officer men, gran

ellin' ye gin ye were learnin' yer

ght that you said that the of

s in thae days. Weel, there was three o' them; an' they cam' ower the hill to see the lasses, graund in their reed breeks slashed wi' yellow. An'

granny?" asked Winsome, w

ld bank, where the big ditch used to be? There we heard him routin' for three days till the cotmen fand him i' the hinderend, an' poo'ed him oot wi' cart-rapes. But when he got oot-certes, but he was a wild beast! He got at Jock Hinderlands afore he could c

gs at Waterloo took the quickest road through the meadow. Captain St. Clair, he trippit on his sword, an' was understood to cry oot that he had never eaten beef in his life. Ensign Withershins threw his shako ower his shoother and jumpit intil the water, whaur he expressed his opinion o' Carlaverock Jock stan'in' up to his neck in Luckie Mowatt's pool-the words I dinna juist call to mind at this present time, which, indeed, is maybe as weel; but it was Lieutenant Lichtbody, o' his Majesty's Heavy

ot in what ye micht ca' the forced retreat. It was bonny, bonny to see; an' whan the three cam' up the loanin' the neist day, 'Sirs,' I said, 'I'm thinkin' ye had better be gaun. I saw Carlaverock Jock the noo, fair tearin' up the greensward. It wudna be bonny gin his Majes

on the braid o'their fit an' marched doon the road wi

?" said Winsome, who sat on a l

y white cockade intil't an' gied them 'The Wee, Wee German L

Whigs

but a

ed at the words of the long-forgotten song as though waking from

ce; let not these words be heard

shes; he turned to the window, and lost himself again in meditation, looking

y plaid gently off her grandfather's shoulder. Then she stood quietly by him with one hand upon his head and with the othe

she cried, turning with a sudden and uncalled-for sparkle of temper on her granddaughter; "There's nae time an' little inclination in this hoose for yer flichty conversation. I wonder muckle that yer thouchts are sae set

tter, grannie!" said Winsome Charteris, breaking