A few words of Gaelic from Maggie May, and the sentence was never finished.
“I’m afraid, Willie,” said Mackenzie, “your city method of loading guns and our rural way present some slight differences. But away you go and wash, the whole lot of you; dinner will be ready in half-an-hour.”
And dinner was. And such a dinner! Willie felt a happy man now. Clear soup to trifle with as a commencement; then salmon that, but the day before, had been sporting in the clear waters of the sunny Don; partridges, and a small turkey to follow, with all the usual vegetable fixings—what could heart of even so mighty a Nimrod as Willie Munro desire better than that?
. . . . . .
It was long past nine o’clock, and the moon’s rich light was falling on woods and valleys, when the two students, bidding their kindly entertainers good-bye, started to walk home to the old farm of Kilbuie.
“I feel very contented and happy, Sandie,” said Willie, when they at length reached the long loanings, and saw the lights from Kilbuie windows blinking bonnily over the garden. “Very contented and happy. There certainly are a few advantages in living in a city, but, ah! give me a farmer’s life in preference to any. I do believe I shall ask my dad to make me a farmer.”
“Well,” sighed Sandie, “it is all right when things go well; but, alas! my dear father has had losses that would have driven many a man distracted. Ha! here comes Tyro to bid us welcome. Down, doggie, down, boy, down. Good dog! did you think we’d never return again any more?”
My English readers will not, I trust, feel shocked when I tell them that the boys really enjoyed the nice little supper that Elsie had spread for them by the roaring kitchen-fire. They were not gluttons, but remember they had had a long walk since dinner, and that the air of the Don-side Highlands is so strong and pure, that to be out in it for even a couple of hours is to secure the appetite of a lion-hunter.
. . . . . .
It was eight o’clock next morning before either awoke, and, considering the exertions of the previous day, this is not to be wondered at. But when they did at last draw the blinds and look out, they were surprised, agreeably or otherwise, to find that, during the night, a heavy snowstorm had fallen, and that the snow was still coming steadily down. There had been no wind, however, and it had not drifted.