Alister the piper, who for the last hour or
two has been looking the indignation he
feels at the delay that has occurred in calling
the native instrument into use, blows
up his "chanter" with an air of grave
superiority; his "drone" grunts, and grunts
again, and at the first wild note that rends
the air, the four dancers bow to the ladies
of the company, and are off, with the
picturesque "Highland fling," into the reel of
Thuilachan, which they keep up for the next
eight or ten minutes with amazing vigour
and skill, while the granary rings from floor
to roof with the "skirl" of Alister's bag-
pipes. The dance ends amid loud acclamations,
and there is a general desire to have it
repeated. Human limbs and human lungs
have a limit to their power, however, and
cannot keep it up at this rate. Yet as the
four best dancers have just left the floor,
there is some difficulty in getting others to
succeed them; and after a brief pause they
dance the reel again in a more moderate
style by way of encore. Then, to gratify
the company (and not less to gratify the
piper, who is jealous of his reputation as a
skilled musician), Tammy Grant consents to
dance the Ghillie Callum, over a pair of
crossed walking sticks, in place of the
traditional crossed swords.

While Ghillie Callum is going on, the
elder has disappeared. His duties are
multifarious. The time for refreshments has now
come; and none but the elder can rightly
concoct the toddy. The elder believes in
wooden implements for the purpose. Ah! if
you but saw the neat little ladles, fashioned of
wild cherry tree, with ebon handles, which
the worthy man has for private use when
his friends are met round his hospitable
board! The present is a public, and, so to
speak, wholesale, occasion. Therefore there
must be a large vessel for mixing, and the
elder insists on the use of the wooden
bushel measure. Into the bushel he shovels
a heap of sugar; and then a "grey beard"
jar of the "real Glengillodram mountain
dew" is emptied in. Then, water, at boiling point,
from the huge copper over the
glowing peat fire on the kitchen hearth.
And the elder bends him over the steaming
bushel, stirs the toddy with a zeal and
knowledge all his own, and has it fully tested and
proved by the aid of two or three trusted
cronies: a second grey beard being hard at
hand to supply what may be lacking to give
it the desiderated "grip."

Tin pitchers, delft mugs, and crystal
jugs, are indifferently called into use for
conveying the elder's mixture to the ball-
room, where a band of active stewards are
speedily at work, handing about supplies
of crisp oat cakes and cheese, along with
the toddy, which is freely served out to all.
Yet let it not be supposed that we drink of
it to drunkenness. In the keen air of this
upland region, toddy is justly reckoned a
kindly liquor, which by itself it never
wilfully breaks a man's character for sobriety;
we drink of it on that clear understanding.

The hour of refreshment past, dancing is
resumed with renewed vigour. By-and-bye
some of the more staid heads in the
company find opportunities for slipping home
to bed; but the flower of the youth and
beauty, who deem the Ploughing Match
Ball an entertainment peculiarly their own,
keep the fiddlers going till three or four
o'clock in the morning, when the ball breaks
up, and the gentlemen gallantly see their
lady partners home. And if the intensity of
their enjoyment be not sufficiently marked
by the lateness of the hour to which it is
protracted, it ought to be by the fact that
almost every one of those who have danced
on until then will have to commence another
day of hard manual labour, within a couple
of hours after leaving the ball-room.

THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS.

A YACHTING STORY.

CHAPTER XII. IN THE DRAWING-ROOM.

THE gentlemen now came up, advancing
on the ladies in the usual disorderly open
skirmishing, as it were, creeping from bush
to bush and chair to chair.

Mr. Conway went over to Jessica.
"You set me down finely at dinner, and
before all the public, too. Was it not
cruel, heartless?"

A look of pain came into her face.
"You always appear to like taking this
bantering tone with me. It seems a little
unkind. It is certainly contemptuous.
You either dislike, or despise me."

There was something, he thought,
strangely attractive in this girl—
something he had not met before, and was new
to him, "man of the world" as he was. He
became natural and genuine at once. "One
has to put on a speech and manner for
company like a dress suit. Shall I own
it? You saw what were my real thoughts.
They were with you in all you said; and I
cannot tell you how I admire your spirit.
I am, indeed, with you; and if you impose,
as penance, that I should make public
retractation——"

Her face lit up, and filled with a sort of
glowing enthusiasm. She had half put