I'll drink a cup to Scotland yet,
Wi' a' the honours three.'
And was their American friend to be excluded?—not if he knew it. He could make a noise as well as any; and he waved the quaich—which had wandered back to him—round his head; and strident enough was his voice with
I'll drink a cup to Scotland yet,
Wi' a' the honours three.'
'I feel half a Scotchman already,' said he gaily to his hostess.
'Indeed, sir, I wish you were altogether one,' she said in her gentle way. 'I am sure I think you would look a little better in health if you lived in this country.'
'But I don't look so ill, do I?' said he—rather disappointed; for he had been striving to be hilarious, and had twice drank the contents of the quaich, out of pure friendliness.
'Well, no, sir,' said Mrs. Murray politely, 'not more than most of them I hef seen from your country; but surely it cannot be so healthy as other places; the young ladies are so thin and delicate-looking whatever; many a one I would like to hef kept here for a while—for more friendly young ladies I never met with anywhere—just to see what the mountain air and the sweet milk would do for her.'
'Well, then, Mrs. Murray, you will have the chance of trying your doctoring on my daughter when she comes up here a few weeks hence; but I think you won't find much of the invalid about her—it's my belief she could give twenty pounds to any girl I know of in a go-as-you-please race across the stiffest ground anywhere. There's not much the matter with my Carry, if she'd only not spend the whole day in those stores in Regent Street. Well, that will be over when she come here; I should think it'll make her stare some, if she wants to buy a veil or a pair of gloves.'