“O Billy, the poor rabbit will surely be caught; and you know the stag hid in ‘Trosach’s wildest nook.’”
“Oh, the kids’—boys’ dogs are mostly old or else too fat to run, like Bouncer. I guess the rabbit can get away,—too soon, perhaps. We’ll have you for Fair Ellen.”
“Oh, no; she must be Jean.”
“She won’t do it; she said so before. She wants to be Alan-bane.”
“But she’s a girl.”
“That’s the reason. She says a boy will spoil the part; won’t get the shivers like she will. She thinks a minstrel can’t—can’t minstrelize properly without the shivers.”
“Yes, that’s true,” May Nell replied, with conviction. “And Queen will be Lady Margaret; and you are Malcolm Graeme; and who is Fitz-James?”
“Pretty; and Charley will be Douglas, and—”
“And Jimmy is already Roderick Dhu.”
“But Roderick Dhu died from fighting Fitz-James; I hate to give Jimmy a dying part.”