but it proved too difficult. Miss Hamilton's general idea was that we should write some verses in good plain English. Then we were to take out all the final g's, and indeed the final letters from all the words wherever it was possible, so that _full_, _awful_, _call_, _ball_, _hall_, _and away_ should be _fu'_, _awfu'_, _ca'_, _ba'_, _ha'_, _an' awa'_. This alone gives great charm and character to a poem; but we were also to change all words ending in _ow_ into _aw_. This doesn't injure the verse, you see, as _blaw_ and _snaw_ rhyme just as well as _blow_ and _snow_, beside bringing tears to the common eye with their poetic associations. Similarly, if we had _daughter_ and _slaughter_, we were to write them _dochter_ and _slauchter_, substituting in all cases _doon_, _froon_, _goon_, and _toon_, for _down_, _frown_, _gown_, and _town_. Then we made a list of Scottish idols,--pet words, national institutions, stock phrases, beloved objects,--convinced if we could weave them in we should attain 'atmosphere.' Here is the first list; it lengthened speedily: thistle, tartan, haar, haggis, kirk, claymore, parritch, broom, whin, sporran, whaup, plaid, scone, collops, whiskey, mutch, cairngorm, oatmeal, brae, kilt, brose, heather. Salemina and I were too devoted to common sense to succeed in this weaving process, so Penelope triumphed and won the first prize, both for that and also because she brought in a saying given us by Miss Dalziel, about the social classification of all Scotland into 'the gentlemen of the North, men of the South, people of the West, fowk o' Fife, and the Paisley bodies.' We think that her success came chiefly from her writing the verses with a Scotch plaid lead-pencil. What effect the absorption of so much red, blue, and green paint will have I cannot fancy, but she ate off--and up--all the tartan glaze before finishing the poem; it had a wonderfully stimulating effect, but the end is not yet!" Of course there was a chorus of laughter when the young wretch exhibited my battered pencil, bought in Princes Street yesterday, its gay Gordon tints sadly disfigured by the destroying tooth, not of Time, but of a bard in the throes of composition. "We bestowed a consolation prize on Salemina," continued Francesca, "because she succeeded in getting _hoots_, _losh_, _havers_, and _blathers_ into one line, but naturally she could not maintain such an ideal standard. Read your verses, Pen, though there is little hope that our friends will enjoy them as much as you do. Whenever Miss Hamilton writes anything of this kind, she emulates her distinguished ancestor Sir William Hamilton, who always fell off his own chair in fits of laughter when he was composing verses." With this inspiring introduction I read my lines as follows:-- AN AMERICAN LADY'S FAREWELL TO EDINBURGH THE MUSE BEING SOMEWHAT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE SCOTTISH BALLAD