“Seems almost like the good old high school days at Tillbury,” Bess whispered to Nan, “I half expect a cheerleader to appear.”
“Sh!” The warning was Nan’s, for after the girls acknowledged the greeting by bowing and smiling and had seated themselves, the contests began.
First, there was the bagpipe competition. At opposite ends of the field on wooden platforms, raised so that everyone could see, the Angus MacPhersons, Donald MacDonalds, and James Mackenzies of the village marched very slowly around and around playing jigs and reels and all sorts of Scottish Highland tunes.
How weird the music seemed to the ears of the American girl! It wasn’t gay enough for Bess who liked only the jazz music that she could hear at home. She grew restless. But Nan and Laura, always interested in strange new things, sat on the very edge of their seats, anxious not to miss any detail of what was happening.
“How I’d like to awaken Mrs. Cupp some drizzly dark morning with bagpipe music!” Laura’s eyes danced merrily at the thought.
“You’d be expelled as sure as anything,” Nan whispered back. “Will you look at that?” She almost fell off the edge of the seat in her excitement.
The Highlanders had retired for a while and, racing across the field now, were teams of two men each, one pushing a wheelbarrow and the other in it. When they missed the goal, as they generally did, a bucket, suspended from a beam above the goal line, tipped and drenched the two with water, to the great amusement of the crowd.
“Oh, what fun!” Laura exclaimed. “Look! There goes another bucket over. He got it right in the face!”
“And look at the next one,” Bess was interested too, now. “Is he going to get by safely? No, look, Nan!” She grabbed her friend’s arm. “The wheelbarrow and everything is going to go over now! Are they hurt?” She closed her eyes and looked the other way.
“Oh, Bess, they’re not hurt, they’re just half drowned,” Nan was laughing heartily. This was fun to watch, better than any circus. The crowd cheered and laughed and clapped and laughed again. “Tilting the Bucket” was one of the favorite Scottish games.