. The land of heather . mp, red-cheeked,and good-natured, but with strangers was so shy shehardly let out a word, and she would drop her head themoment she caught any one looking at her. Amongher companions or alone she was lively enough, and hertongue was capable of keeping on the trot all day she entertained herself by singing, and on arainy day she would very likely play circus in thekitchen by the hour. She had seen a show at sometime, and had taken a fancy to the tight-rope lady. Soshe would imagine herself in a spangled dress, lay anarrow board across two chairs and dance on t
. The land of heather . mp, red-cheeked,and good-natured, but with strangers was so shy shehardly let out a word, and she would drop her head themoment she caught any one looking at her. Amongher companions or alone she was lively enough, and hertongue was capable of keeping on the trot all day she entertained herself by singing, and on arainy day she would very likely play circus in thekitchen by the hour. She had seen a show at sometime, and had taken a fancy to the tight-rope lady. Soshe would imagine herself in a spangled dress, lay anarrow board across two chairs and dance on that withan old Cuiie for a balancing stick. She at first beggedfor a rope to tie between the bedstead and the table,but her mother thought it best she should begin morehumbly. Occasionally, when another little girl camein on a dull day, the two would play the dambrod(checkers); but Cathie was not clever at that, and aftershe had been beaten two or three times her opponentwould say to her, Ill hae to tak afF yer heid an*. A Rural Hamlet 29 pit on a neep (turnip), and then Cathie would refuseto play any more. Drumtochty and the country for miles round aboutwas owned by the Earl of Mansfield. He was one ofthe richest of Scotch landed proprietors, and his resi-dence was at Scone Palace, near Perth. There waslittle liking for him among his tenantry, for he showedslight interest in their prosperity, and was quite contentto see the farms degenerate into grazing moorland;and such was his partisanship for the Established Kirk,of which he was a supporting pillar, that he discrimi-nated against dissenting tenants — at least this was com-mon report. But the clachan on the strath, although itbelonged to the Earl, was not wholly in his power. Itwas built on land leased for a term of ninety-nine years,and about a quarter of this time was still and churches, both, were built by the people,but all would be the Earl of Mansfields uncondition-ally in twenty-six years. Neverthel
Size: 1311px × 1906px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorjohnsonc, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1904
