CASTLE AND COTTAGE.

It would seem that little Bertha Blantyre had everything that her heart could wish. She was an only daughter, and a pretty, blooming, petted darling. Her father was a rich lord, and, what was better, a good and kind-hearted man. Her mother was a noble lady, and, what was more, a gentle and loving woman, and even little Bertha had from her cradle the title of “Honorable,” which is as much as our great Congressmen can boast. Yet I am sorry to say, this little lady was not always as happy and grateful as she should have been, but was sometimes sadly discontented, believing that other children were far happier than she. All such little girls as had brothers and sisters to play with them, and run about with them in the woods and over the moors, she envied bitterly, even though they were the children of poor peasants, never thinking it possible that they might be envying her at the same time.

Lord Blantyre resided principally at Blantyre Castle, on a noble estate, among the heathery hills of Scotland. The Castle was very ancient, with towers, and turrets, and a massive gateway, but it had many modern additions which beautified it, and gave it a cheerful, almost home-like look. Through the old moat there slowly ran a bright, clear stream, in which grew hosts of water-lilies, and other aquatic plants. Beyond this were soft, green, close-shaven lawns and shrubberies, and gardens full of fountains and statues and fairy-like bowers; the stables, full of beautiful horses and ponies; the kennels, where a pack of noble stag-hounds was kept; the dairy, the poultry-yard, and the pretty little houses of the gold and silver pheasants. Around all was a great wooded park, filled with fleet spotted deer.

In this park Bertha often walked with her mother, or was whirled along in a small open phaeton, drawn by two lovely white ponies, which Lady Blantyre herself drove.

In the wildest and most remote part of the park lived the gamekeeper, who, with his wife, had been born and bred on the estate, and from childhood had been in the service of the noble family. Lady Blantyre never passed the cottage of Robert MacWillie in her drives without stopping to inquire after the health of his wife, who had once been her maid, and of their fine brood of little ones. During these visits Bertha became acquainted with the young foresters, and as she was of a simple and amiable disposition, and not a bit haughty or conceited, she liked them all heartily. But she especially took to a little girl about her own age, named Lilly, and a boy a year or two older, called Hughie.

One day as Lady Blantyre and Bertha were driving along the shore of a miniature loch or pond, near Robert MacWillie’s cottage, they saw Hughie and Lilly playing in a burn, or brook, which emptied into the little loch. Hughie was constructing a dam, with stones and turf and heather-branches cemented with clay, and Lilly was sailing a tiny boat, loaded with pebbles and flowers. Both were barefoot, and plashing fearlessly in the burn. Lady Blantyre checked her ponies, and after watching the children awhile, called them to the side of her phaeton. Hughie took off his Glengary cap, and held it in his hand, and Lilly was about to pull from her head a wild-looking wreath of daisies and purple heather-blooms, when Bertha exclaimed, “Don’t take it off! it is so pretty; who made it?”

“Brother Hughie,” answered Lilly, blushing.

“How good he must be! Do you like playing and wading in the water and picking wild-flowers?”

“Yes,” said Lilly, looking down, and drawing figures in the sand with her rosy little toes. “Hughie is gude. I like playing wi’ the burn, and flowers are bonny wee things”; then, looking up timidly, she offered to her friend a bunch of water-lilies, which Hughie had waded far out into the pond up to his short kilt to obtain.

“Thank you,” said Bertha. “O how sweet they are, a thousand times sweeter than those that grow in the moat, are n’t they, mamma?”

Lady Blantyre smiled, for there was really no difference, the lilies at the Castle having been brought from this very pond.

“How long have you been at your great work there?” she asked of Hughie.

“For maist a week, my Lady; but for the last twa days Domine MacGregor has been down wi’ an ill turn, and I hae (have) lost na time at schule (school), so I hae got on weel wi’ it. It will soon be done noo.”

“And what do you intend to do with it when it is finished?” asked the lady.

“I canna say, but I think we ‘ll play flood-time wi’ it.”

“What is that?”

“Your ladyship sees that wee-bit island; weel, we’ll put on it some doggies and a cat.”

“Not my wee puss, Winkie?” cried Lilly in alarm.

“No, auld black Tammy will do, and a chicken or twa, and we ’ll watch the water rise and rise, till the puir creatures huddle togither and greet and cackle and howl, then I ’ll loup (leap) intil the burn, and one after anither rescue them a’.”

“O, how grand that would be!” exclaimed little Bertha, her eyes flashing with excitement.

“Rather cruel sport,” said Lady Blantyre, shaking her head, yet smiling in spite of herself.

“Is it?” said Hughie, his countenance falling, “then I ’ll no do it. I ‘ll but drive a’ the duckies and fulish geese down here, and see them gae quacking and skirling over the dam. I hope they’ll no object to the sport.”

“Probably not,” said her ladyship, pleasantly.

“O mamma,” said Bertha, looking up wistfully into her face, “how I should love to play so with water and pebbles, and little boats, and ducks and geese, and dams, all day long! How happy they must be!”

“Perhaps little Lilly thinks it would be a very happy thing to be in your place, my daughter,” said Lady Blantyre.

“Do you think so?” asked Bertha, wonderingly.

“Ay,” answered Lilly, in a low, almost awestruck tone, “I think that to be Miss Bertha, and bide in a braw (fine) Castle, wad be next to being an angel, or a bonnie fairy princess.”

All laughed at this, but on the way home Bertha was very thoughtful and sad. Every time she spoke, it was to bewail her hard lot in being allowed to take the air only in walks with her governess, or drives with her mamma, in being obliged to wear fine clothes, to learn music and dancing, “and other tiresome things,” and never being free to run wild on the hills and heaths, wade in the ponds, and plash in the burns, like the little MacWillies.

Her mother tried to show her that, as her station was different from theirs, her education and habits should be different, and that she had a great deal to be thankful for, and might be very happy, if she would.

“Well, I think I ought at least to have a little brother to play with me. I think God might have given me that, and kept back some of the other things.”

At this little burst of petulance, Lady Blantyre sighed and was silent for some moments. Then she said: “Would my little daughter like to try living at the cottage of the MacWillies for a day or two, just like one of their own?”

“O yes, mamma, and play with Lilly and Hughie?”

“With Hughie and the other children. I must have Lilly with me at the Castle, to make up for the loss of my little Bertha.”

“O!” said Bertha, looking a little disappointed; then she added, eagerly, “But, mamma, may I indeed do just like them? go without a bonnet, take off my shoes and stockings, and wade in the burn, and patter in the nice soft clay?”

“Yes, if Lilly will consent to take your place, and play the little lady at the Castle.”

In the afternoon Lady Blantyre sent for Mrs. MacWillie, and between them they arranged that their little daughters should change places on the morrow; and that night both Bertha and Lilly went to bed with their hearts full of happy anticipations, and each pitying the other.

Early in the morning, Lilly was brought to the Castle, and Bertha conveyed to the cottage. Lilly wanted to take with her her pet kitten, but was told that poor little Winkle would be rather too vulgar a visitor for Lady Blantyre’s drawing-room. Bertha proposed to take her pretty King Charles spaniel, but was told that the gamekeeper’s rough mastiffs and terriers would make nothing of taking him by the neck and shaking the life out of him. So she concluded to leave Frivole behind.

When she reached the cottage, the little MacWillies came around her, full of wonder and shy admiration. They said nothing to her, but they whispered among themselves, and their eyes looked very big and watched her constantly.

“Come here, Sandy and Effie!” she said to a little boy and girl, who stood with their hands behind them, gazing at her as if she really had been a fairy princess. “Do come to me; I am your sister now, don’t you know?”

But they only drew back, and as she started toward them, scampered away and hid behind their mother.

“Come, Hughie,” said the little lady, “let us go down to the burn. You must make me a wreath like Lilly’s, and play with me just as you do with her, won’t you?”

Hughie gladly promised, and away they went hand in hand. But the lad could not quite forget that his playmate was the Honorable Miss Bertha Blantyre, so he took the choicest roses from his mother’s garden to make a wreath for her, and for the life of him he could not be as free and merry with her as with his sister. However, he was very kind and amusing, and Bertha was in high glee. The first thing she did when they reached the burnside, was to sit down and pull off her shoes and stockings, then she ran up and down the sandy shore of the loch, throwing pebbles and daisies into the water, sailing Lilly’s little boat, and laughing and singing like some wild creature. Then she helped Hughie at his dam awhile, patting the soft clay with her dainty little hands.

“O dear!” she exclaimed at last.

“What’s the matter, my bonnie leddie?” said Hughie, rather patronizingly.

“My feet smart so! See how big and red they look.”

“Sae they do. You hae burned them. The sun is hot this simmer day, and the sand as weel, and ye ken (know) ye are no used to gang without your shoon (shoes); wade a bit, noo, and cool your small saft feet.”

Bertha thrust one foot into the water, but drew it out instantly, exclaiming, “Ugh, how cold!”

“Ay, gin (if) ye only dip the tips o’ your toes, like a fearsome cat; but gin ye rin bravely intil the water, like a spaniel dog, ye’ll no find it cauld,” said Hughie, taking her hand and leading her in. But Bertha still thought it cold; she caught her breath, and shrieked at every step, frightened not only at the rising water, but at the tiny fishes within it, and even at the insects skimming along its surface. As Hughie was leading her out, she trod on a stone and cut one of her delicate feet quite severely. Then, when she reached the shore, she found that she could not get on her stockings and shoes, and with her eyes full of tears she said, “Ah me! what shall I do? I can’t walk barefoot among the heather, my feet are so sore already.”

“O, dinna fash yoursel’ (don’t trouble yourself) about that, I ’ll carry you in my twa arms,” said Hughie; and the sturdy little fellow took her and carried her to the cottage.

After having had her foot bound up, and her face bathed in cream, for that was also burned, her pretty wreath having proved a very poor protection from the sun, Bertha was invited to share the midday meal of the children. Being very hungry, she gladly sat up to the table and took her share of milk and oatmeal cakes, or bannocks. She liked the milk, but the bannocks scratched her throat and almost brought the tears to her eyes. She wondered how the others could eat them so ravenously.

After dinner the children did their best to amuse their visitor, by playing games, running, leaping, and tumbling about, all very kindly meant, but rough, noisy, and almost terrifying to Bertha, who was not sorry when the younger ones ran out of the house to play under the trees. Hughie sat by her side on the settle, and told her stories, till she fell asleep. She was very weary, and slept a long while, against some cushions which Hughie placed behind her. When she awoke, she looked around wonderingly, and, missing the dear faces of her mother and nurse, burst into tears.

“What’s the matter wi’ my bonnie bairn?” asked Mrs. MacWillie, tenderly.

“I want to go home!” sobbed Bertha.

“And ye shall gae hame; sae dinna greet (weep), my lammie,” said the good woman.

In a very few minutes the gamekeeper, who, by the way, had watched the children all the morning, from behind some thick bushes by the loch, to see that no harm befell them, came to the door with the family carriage, a two-wheeled vehicle, called a “dog-cart,” drawn by a shaggy old pony. Bertha was helped into this, and, having taken a kind but rather hasty leave of her rustic friends, was driven, in a little lazy, shuffling trot, towards the Castle. About half-way, who should they meet but Lady Blantyre, driving Lilly MacWillie home in her pony-phaeton! She did not seem to see the dog-cart at all, but dashed by it at a furious rate.

Little Lilly had scarcely had a better day than Bertha. From the first hour of her visit to the Castle she had felt ill at ease, and almost homesick. Everything there was so strange and magnificent, that all the kindness she met with failed to make her feel happy and comfortable. Lady Blantyre devoted herself to her amusement; she showed her the conservatories and the aviaries, and led her through the long picture-gallery. This last was an awful place to Lilly; she was frightened at the array of old-time Blantyres, fierce soldiers in armor, grim judges in enormous wigs, and grand ladies in vast hoops and stupendous head-dresses.

At lunch, Lady Blantyre had her little guest sit beside her, and pressed her to eat of delicate wild-fowl and luscious fruit. But Lilly was scared out of the little appetite she had, not by his lordship, who sat opposite, but by the solemn footman who stood behind her chair. After lunch, Lady Blantyre played and sung for her, and showed her Bertha’s books and toys.

At length she left her alone for a time, while she went to dress. When she returned to the drawing-room she could not see the child anywhere; but presently she heard a stifled sob behind the curtain of a window, looking towards the gamekeeper’s cottage. She went to Lilly, and put her arms about her, saying, “What are you grieving about, my dear?”

“Let me gae hame! I maun gae hame!” (I must go home) said Lilly.

“So you shall, darling,” replied the lady.

When Lady Blantyre returned from the cottage, she found Bertha in the nursery, sitting on the lap of her kind nurse Margery.

“Well, has my little daughter learned content from this day’s experience?” said the lady, smiling.

“Yes, mamma,” replied Bertha. “I find that one must belong to the MacWillies, to do as they do, and like it; but somehow, I wish I had been used to their ways from the first, that is, if you and papa had been so too. It seems to me that God meant that all people should live nearly alike, and only have houses just big enough to hold them comfortably, like the nests of the birds; and that all children should run among the hills, and play with the brooks. Did n’t he?”

“Perhaps he did, my child.”

As for Lilly, she spoke her mind that night, to her pet kitten, as she hugged it in her arms before dropping to sleep. “Are ye na glad that we are na fine ladies, eh, Winkie?”

A CHARADE.

My first is fair, as when it graced
The bowers of Paradise;
It glows in Cashmere’s vale, and climbs
Where snowy Alp-peaks rise:
It glads the peasant-woman’s heart,
And the Queen’s imperial eyes.

My second is a sacred name,
A name of high renown,
By poets sung, yet common ’tis,
As daisies on the down,
Though ladies grand and royal dames
Have worn it as a crown.

When William’s ship rocked in the bay,
Impatient to be gone,
And William took his seaward way
Across our dewy lawn,
To pluck my whole to give her love,
Rose Mary with the dawn.

Rose-mary.

JAMIE’S FAITH.

Margaret Grey was a widow, who, with three young children, lived in a small cottage on the estate of Lord Dundale, in Scotland. When her husband died, Margaret had been compelled to give up the land he had farmed, with the exception of a little garden, and a patch of pasturage on which she supported a cow and a shaggy Highland pony, called Rab.

This last was a very important member of the family, as without him the widow could not have conveyed to market the butter and eggs, on the proceeds of which the frugal little household subsisted. For his part, Rab seemed fully conscious of his own important and responsible position in the widow’s family, gave up all frisking and frolicking ways, and conducted himself in a staid and sober manner on his way to and from the market-town, and assumed towards the children in their little rides a sort of protecting, patronizing, paternal character, which was really edifying to behold.

Lord Dundale was a young man, very handsome and stately, but gentle and gracious, and much beloved by his family and tenants. The children on his estate looked up to him with loving reverence, as to a superior being, from whom nothing but good and happiness were to be expected by the deserving. For them his youth, beauty, and elegance had especial poetic charms; their sweet, simple affection, their timid, grateful devotion, were laid at his feet, so that when moving among them he trod on unseen flowers. They loved to hear and to tell of the grand and beautiful things at that fairy palace, the Castle, a noble old edifice, with massive towers, a moat, a lofty gateway, and an ancient drawbridge and portcullis, which stood high in the midst of great forest-trees.

Lord Dundale, being in delicate health, was able to spend but a few months of each year in Scotland, the climate being too severe for him; but he loved the place of his birth, and was never so happy as when, like Rob Roy, he could say, “My foot is on my native heath.”

To his tenants his yearly visit to his Scottish estate was always a season of festivity: they hailed the signal of his return, the running up of a flag on the highest tower of the Castle, with shouts of hearty rejoicing.

The cottage of the Grey was on a shady lane, through which the young lord often rode in the pleasant autumn mornings or evenings, sometimes with a gay party of ladies and gentlemen, guests at the Castle, sometimes, when the hour was early, quite alone, and sometimes with one beautiful dark-eyed lady, fresh as a rose and proud as a lily, who it was said was one day to be the mistress of Dundale Castle. The Grey children, little Effie and Jamie, noticed that when the young lord rode by himself, or with ever so large a party of riders, he never failed to acknowledge their bows and courtesies with a nod and a pleasant word and smile; but that when he and the dark-eyed lady together ambled slowly past, he did not seem to see their wistful little faces at all. So, in their secret hearts, they took something very like a spite against the beautiful Lady Evelyn, and hoped their young lord would change his mind.

One autumn evening, as Margaret Grey rode homeward from the market-town, she noticed that Rab, the pony, was languid and slow, that he hung his head dejectedly, and made no effort to browse along the hedge-rows as usual. She supposed that he was tired with his day’s work, but trusted that he would be well in the morning. Alas! when the morning came, poor, faithful old Rab was found dead, stretched out stiff and cold in his paddock!

Effie and Jamie grieved passionately over their lost friend and playfellow. They sat down beside him on the grass, and, looking at his poor, helpless feet, worn in their service, wept bitterly that they would carry them along the lane and up the hillside no more; they patted half fearfully the shaggy neck; which would arch to their caresses never again; they drew back with a shudder, after touching the cold lips which had so often eaten the sweet clover from their hands, and turned with a sense of strange wonder and awfulness from the death-misted eyes, which had always shone upon them with an almost human affection.

Margaret Grey wept also, fewer tears than her children, but sadder. She had many sweet and mournful memories connected with poor Rab. Her dear old father gave him to her on her eighteenth birthday. She remembered many a joyful gallop on his back, through the lanes and over the moors. She remembered how sometimes she rode him slowly, with his rein on his neck; for young Angus Grey walked by her side and told her pleasant news, always pleasant and interesting, though always about the same thing. She remembered how once he checked Rab’s rein under the shade of a hawthorn-tree, and asked her to be his wife. She remembered, too, how Rab had borne her to the Kirk, to be married to Angus Grey; and she thought of three other Sundays when he had carried her and her baby to the christening; and of yet one other time, when he had drawn slowly away from her door a hearse, whereon lay the beloved husband and father. She thought, too, with tender anxiety, that now the last help of the widow, her humble fellow-laborer, was taken from her; and the grim wolf of want and hunger seemed to stand in poor dead Rab’s place. Even the baby seemed to feel something of her anxiety and distress, and put up its pretty lip to cry; so to comfort it and to calm herself by her usual household labor, she returned to the cottage, leaving Effie and Jamie still sitting beside old Rab. Their grief had somewhat moderated; yet they sobbed as they talked of the virtues of the deceased, and wondered what life would be without him.

“Ah, Jamie,” said Effie, “inna you wish the Lord was here now? You ken mither told us how He cured sick folk, and how He once made a mon alive again that had been dead four days. He could make our Rab alive wi’ a touch of His finger, gin (if) He would try, Jamie.”

Wee Jamie was a simple-hearted child, scarcely four summers old: his little brain was easily bewildered. For him there was but one Lord, the good and generous young nobleman at the Castle. Of his power and goodness Jamie could believe anything, and though he opened his eyes wide at his sister’s story, his face grew radiant with joy, as just at that moment he caught sight of Lord Dundale trotting slowly down the lane on his beautiful thoroughbred bay mare. In a moment he was over the fence, in the road, in the very path of the rider, crying out in an agony of entreaty, “Stop, stop, my lord! our Rab is dead; ye maun (must) make him alive again!”

Lord Dundale checked his horse, and looked down on his little petitioner in silent astonishment, while Mrs. Grey ran out of the cottage, with baby in her arms, and, catching hold of Jamie, strove to lift him out of the way. But the little fellow resisted sturdily, crying still, “Let him make Rab alive! He maun make him alive!”

“But, my little fellow,” said the Earl, smiling, “if Rab is really dead, and I am very sorry to hear it, I cannot make him alive: how could you think of such a thing?”

But Jamie stood his ground, answering, “My mither says you once made a big mon alive after he had been dead four days. Rab is only a sma’ pony, and he’s been dead but a wee bit while; so it’s na a hard job for you. Dinna say you will na do it.”

“What can the little lad mean, Mrs. Grey?” asked Lord Dundale, utterly bewildered.

“I dinna ken (do not know), my lord,” she replied, “unless, Heaven save us! he takes you for the Lord of lords. I didna think the bairn was so heathenish and so daft (foolish). You maun forgie (must forgive) the poor child.”

Lord Dundale dismounted, and, taking the little fellow by the hand, by a few simple questions, soon found that this was indeed Jamie’s strange delusion.

“My poor little laddie,” he said, “you are wofully mistaken. I cannot bring your dear old pony back to life. You can never play with him, or feed him, or ride him among the heather or along the burnside again. Rab’s work is done, and it is time he should rest. But, Jamie, I can give you another pony in his place, one that I hope may serve your good mother as well as Rab, and that you and Effie must love for my sake. And now good by. I hope Jamie will yet know well the Lord most great and good and loving, the only true Lord of life and death.”

Taking a kindly leave of Mrs. Grey, the young Earl then rode on, but in the course of the day the groom of the Castle galloped down to the widow’s cottage, leading the new pony, a handsome, sturdy little animal, and so gentle and docile that not only Jamie but timid little Effie could ride him with safety; and even the baby, when set on his back, played with his mane and answered his whinny with a triumphant crow.

So Jamie’s faith, though mistaken, was rewarded; and his innocent, fervent little prayer was answered, not by a Divine miracle, but by a generous human heart, which also found its reward in proving the truth of the Master’s words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

A CHARADE.

If my studious Lillian,
This charade will careful scan,
With knit brow and red lips pursed,
She will then unconscious show
To all such as care to know
An example of my first.

My second is what divine truths are,
And Alpine heights that gleam afar,
And hills of Scottish heather;
And what are not all human blisses,
The little loves of little misses,
Winds, waves, and April weather.

If from my second some sad dawn
You find your favorite palfrey gone,
Don’t lock the door, and don’t
Sit down and cry. To chase the thief
Despatch my whole: it’s my belief
He ’ll catch him, or he won’t.

Con-stable.