An Englishman would have been utterly surprised and taken aback at the display of beauty on the female side of the room. The girls were nearly all young and regular in feature, while their bright eyes, ruddy lips, and splendid complexions left nothing to be desired.
Couple after couple now began to arrive rapidly enough, the lads leading their partners to the female side of the house, bowing, and leaving them.
Anon, the fiddles began to tune up, every note striking a joy-chord in the hearts of the younger girls and boys, bringing a brighter flush to their cheeks, a more gleesome glitter to their eyes.
But as yet dancing had not commenced. Presently, however, there entered M‘Crae with his buxom wife, followed by a posse of sturdy farmers. They were received with a true Highland cheer, and it was felt by all that the ball would now begin.
M‘Crae first made a little speech, bidding everybody heartily welcome to the winter ball at Kilbuie, and especially thanking the farmers and their bold ploughmen for their kind and thoughtful love-darg. His own dancing days being over, he said, his son, and a friend of his, would open the ball with the Reel of Tulloch, to which the pipers would vouchsafe music.
Now Willie and Sandie take the floor. Willie leads up Sandie’s shy but smiling sister, Elsie, who is dressed in white, with a M‘Crae tartan plaid, and a single blood-red rose in her dark hair. Sandie wears the kilt, but he has yet to look for a partner.
There are a good many downcast looks, and not a few palpitating hearts, as he walks gaily along the ladies’ benches. He is simply looking for the prettiest girl he can find.
He is satisfied at last, and leads her blushing to the floor. The pipers take their stand, and, after a few preliminary skirls, strike straight into the Reel o’ Hoolachan.
Anon the dance begins, and such dancing! Don’t call waltzing or the quadrille dancing, reader. Unless you have seen the Reel of Tulloch danced well, as it is at, say, the balls at Balmoral Castle, you have never known what a dance is in your life.
After this wild reel, the ice may be said to be fairly broken, and dance after dance succeeds each other without intermission, accompanied by much cracking of thumbs and “hooching.”