’What, what, lass?’ Ronald cried grimly. ’Are ye thinking ye’re in a Highland glen? Do ye think it was frae places like this that the lads were called out to follow Prince Charlie?’ ’I carena—I carena!’ she said; for what had trivial details of history to do with a jovial picnic in Campsie Glen? ’Come, Ronald, lad, tune up! Hang the Harmony Club!—give us a song in the open air!’ ’Here goes, then— _’It was about the Martinmas time,_ _And a gay time it was then, O,_ _That our guidwife had puddins to mak’,_ _And she boiled them in the fan, O’—_ and then rang out the chorus, even the old mother Paterson joining in with a feeble treble— _’O the barrin’ o’ our door, weel, weel, weel,_ _And the barrin’ o’ our door, weel!’_ ’Your health and song, Ronald!’ she cried, when he had finished—or rather when they all had finished. ’Man, if there was just a laddie here wi’ a fiddle or a penny whistle I’d get up and dance a Highland Schottische wi’ ye—auld as I am!’ After luncheon, they set out for further explorations (having deposited the basket in a secret place) and always Kate Menzies’s laugh was the loudest, her jokes the merriest. ’Auld, say ye?’ mother Paterson complained. ’A lassie—a very lassie! Ye can skip about like a twa-year-auld colt.’ By and by they made their devious and difficult way down the glen again; and they had tea at the inn; and then they set out to drive back to Glasgow—and there was much singing the while. That is, up to a certain point; for this easy homeward drive, as it turned out, was destined to be suddenly and sharply stopped short, and that in a way that might have produced serious consequences. They were bowling merrily along, taking very little heed of anything on either side of them, when, as it chanced, a small boy who had gone into a field to recover a kite that had dropped there, came up unobserved behind the hedge, and threw the kite over, preparatory to his struggling through himself. The sudden appearance of this white thing startled the cob; it swerved to the other side of the road, hesitated, and was like to rear, and then getting an incautious cut from Kate’s whip, away it tore along the highway, getting completely the mastery of her. Ronald got up behind. ’Give me the reins, lass,’ he called to her. ’I’ll manage him—the stupid beast!’ she said; with her teeth shut firm. But all her pulling seemed to make no impression on the animal—nay, the trap was now swaying and jolting about in a most ominous manner. ’If ye meet anything, we’re done for, Kate—run the wheel into the hedge.’