The Scotch Twins | Page 4

Perkins
ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
Geographical Series
THE DUTCH TWINS PRIMER. Grade I. THE DUTCH TWINS Grade
III. THE ESKIMO TWINS. Grade II. THE JAPANESE TWINS. Grade
IV. THE IRISH TWINS. Grade V. THE SCOTCH TWINS. Grades V
and VI. THE MEXICAN TWINS. Grade VI. THE BELGIAN TWINS.
Grade VI. THE FRENCH TWINS. Grade VII.
Historical Series
THE CAVE TWINS. Grade IV. THE SPARTAN TWINS. Grades
V-VI.
Each volume is illustrated by the author
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON NEW YORK
CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY LUCY PITCH PERKINS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
I. THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE ON THE BRAE II. THE RABBIT
AND THE GAMEKEEPER III. THE SABBATH IV. THE NEW BOY
V. EVENING IN THE WEE BIT HOOSIE VI. TWO DISCOVERIES
VII. THE CLAN VIII. THE POACHERS IX. A RAINY DAY X. ON
THE TRAIL XI. ANGUS NIEL AND THE CANNY CLAN XII.
NEWS XIII. THE NEW LAIRD GLOSSARY SUGGESTIONS TO
TEACHERS
THE SCOTCH TWINS
I.
THE LITTLE GRAY HOUSE ON THE BRAE
If you had peeped in at the window of a little gray house on a heathery
hillside in the Highlands of Scotland one Saturday morning in May
some years ago, you might have seen Jean Campbell "redding up" her
kitchen. It was a sight best seen from a safe distance, for, though Jean
was only twelve years old, she was a fierce little housekeeper every day
in the week, and on Saturday, when she was getting ready for the
Sabbath, it was a bold person indeed who would venture to put himself
in the path of her broom. To be sure, there was no one in the family to
take such a risk except her twin brother Jock, her father, Robin

Campbell, the Shepherd of Glen Easig, and True Tammas, the dog, for
the Twins' mother had "slippit awa'" when they were only ten years old,
leaving Jean to take a woman's care of her father and brother and the
little gray house on the brae.
On this May morning Jean woke up at five o'clock and peeped out of
the closet bed in which she slept to take a look at the day. The sun had
already risen over the rocky crest of gray old Ben Vane, the mountain
back of the house, and was pouring a stream of golden sunlight through
the eastern windows of the kitchen. The kettle was singing over the fire
in the open fireplace, a pan of skimmed milk for the calf was warming
by the hearth, and her father was just going out, with the pail on his
arm, to milk the cow. She looked across the room at the bed in the
corner by the fireplace to see if Jock were still asleep. All she could see
of him was a shock of sandy hair, two eyes tight shut, and a freckled
nose half buried in the bed-clothes.
"Wake up, you lazy laddie," she called out to him, "or when I get my
clothes on I'll waken you with a wet cloth! Here's the sun looking in at
the windows to shame you, and Father already gone to the milking."
Jock opened one sleepy blue eye.
"Leave us alone, now, Jeanie," he wheedled. "I was just having a sonsie
wee bit of a dream. Let me finish, and syne I'll tell you all about it."
"Indeed, and you'll do nothing of the kind" retorted Jean, with spirit.
"Up with you, mannie, or I'll be dressed before you, and I ken very well
you'd not like to be beaten by a lassie, and her your own sister, too."
Jock cuddled down farther into the blankets without answering, and
Jean began putting on her clothes. It seemed but a moment before she
slid to the floor, rolled her sleeves high above a pair of sturdy elbows,
and went to finish her toilet at the basin. There she washed her face and
combed her hair, while Jock, cautiously opening one eye again,
observed her from his safe retreat. He watched her part her hair, wet it,
plaster it severely back from her brow, and tie it firmly in place with a
piece of black ribbon. Jock could read Jean's face like print, and in this
stern toilet he foresaw a day of unrelenting house- cleaning.
"Aye," he said to himself bitterly, "she's putting on her Saturday face.
There's trouble brewing, I doubt! It'll be Jock this and Jock that both
but and ben all day long, and whatever is the use of all this tirley-wirly
I can't see, when on Monday the house will look as if it had never seen

the sight of a besom! I'll just bide where I am." He closed his eyes and
pretended to be asleep.
It is