510 

 RODERICK THE FAIR-HAIRED :" 



A TALE OP THE NORTH. 



THE e< season of the singing of birds" has always been remarkable 

 as that in which the human mind is most susceptible of the energies 

 of nature; when the universal chorus of creation finds an answering 

 sympathy in every heart. It was on a beautiful evening in April, 

 when the buds of the mountain-timber and the green leaves of the 

 lichen had just expanded into existence; when the snow-wreaths of 

 Slochkmuick had receded toward the mountain-top before the genial 

 influence of the reviving sun, that Roderick Vich Allan Bain,, or the 

 fair-haired, set forward to pay a formal visit to tf his ain dear lassie." 

 Bonny Mary MacCairbre, who tarried beyond the ridges of the 

 breezy Minikaig, was the idol of his heart ; but, as " the course of 

 true love never did run smooth," Roderick's connexions were as 

 averse to his attachment as his fondness and affection were ardent 

 and sincere. Mary had been the object of his early selection, on 

 whom his spirit doated ; and like twin-tendrils they had grown up, 

 unconscious of their mutual regards, and knew love only by its name. 



Their tender solicitudes had become so identified with their exist- 

 ence, that the casual absence of either was lamented not as an ordi- 

 nary incident, but as an evil which the voice of their mourning could 

 alone express. Roderick delighted in attending for Mary her lamb- 

 kins, when she had wandered far away from her fleecy charge, per- 

 haps to pluck a handful of crow-flowers or gowans to wreathe the 

 snowy neck of her pet lamb, or to gambol over the green sward with 

 her hoyden playmates. Rather than suffer her to follow, or his 

 " colly" to annoy the bleating wanderers, strayed along the bog, he 

 would toss with a jerk his highland plaid across his well-set, broad, 

 and brawny shoulders, and dislodge them with a tenderness meant 

 for Mary's special observance, of which it was so worthy. Having 

 attained to those years when woman's stature, if not her maturity, 

 incite her to a higher sphere of maiden duty, an offer was held out 

 to her by a distant relative, of distinguished family, lately married, in 

 the capacity of a humble friend. This lady's husband, Saunders 

 MacSillergrip, Esq., had by a former marriage, in India, two volatile 

 minxes of daughters, carrotty, insolent, and in their teens, besides a 

 maiden sister, an atrabilious canting paragon of stale perfection, and 

 an ever-meddling mother, a thrifty dowager well stricken in years, 

 living with him en famille, from whose annoyances, attached as they 

 were by ties so numerous and so strong, the persecuted, unsuspecting, 

 inexperienced creature found it quite impracticable to escape. The 

 engagement thence became no less consolatory and gratifying to the 

 lady herself than desirable to Mary. Her education having in time 

 been carefully superintended, and her natural aptitude making the 

 task of instruction light, she, after a little while, became the pride and 

 toast of Starvitout, her only ambition being to make conquests, until 

 her success had smitten her self-love into a desire to adore the attrac- 



