No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 377 



about. Soon I saw two people, a tall lady and a little man, and 

 the lady was evidently giving the little man orders. We later 

 drove in silence to the hotel. 1 was shown to my room, and I thought 

 nothing more about them. A little maid came up and asked me 

 if I would not come down and have a cup of tea. I went down, and 

 there I saw the tall lady and the little man. The lady said to 

 me: "Will you have a walk with us?" And we started out. Now 

 at home I am rather praised for my walking ability, but I walked 

 and walked with the two strangers, in a strange country, six miles, 

 and very few words were spoken all that while. Stopping finally, 

 the woman turned to me and said: ''Have you ever heard "Max- 

 welton's braes are bonny?" This is Maxwelton, and over there is 

 the little church where he and I were married 28 years ago, and 

 we went straight to Australia. We have just come back to the 

 Islands, and I could not go back without coming to Maxwelton. 

 Mind you it is the bonniest spot in all the world." (The priest had 

 said that about Killarney). She turned to the little man, and said: 

 "Sing," and he began to sing, and in the second stanza the wife 

 joined. They sang the third stanza, both faces wet with tears. 

 After they had finished, the lady said: "Do you like that song?" 

 "Do you know it is the best love song in all the world?" She 

 added: "Go to Edinburgh library and see for yourself." A few 

 weeks later I was there, and saw its record: that for simplicity, 

 chastity, and beautiful melody and words, "Annie Laurie" is the type 

 of the world's sweetest love songs. 



My friends. fi2 per cent, of the sonirs that are written nowadays 

 are the songs that are written about what we call 'Hove," and of that 

 62 per cent. 80 per cent, insinnnte that the divorce court will take 

 care of conditions that are not happy, "so don't be too serious." What 

 kind of a sonsr is that, and how does it compare with tlie soncr of 

 "Annie Laurie" which is the typical, clean, fine love song? Only 

 to-dav T had a new bit of treasnre regarding love sonsrs, and "Annie 

 Laurie" particnlarlv. T talked with a woman who told me that hpr 

 father, who was a British naval officer in the Crimean war, said 

 that they all stood while over the trenches the boys all began to 

 sing "Annie Laurie." and one of the men said: "I know she is 

 thi'nJcinn of me. too." 



T would not leave Scotland in two hours if it were not wrong 

 to keep yon so loner. But before leaving it T must tell you that in 

 the north of Scotlnnd, T discovered something more regardinsr our 

 AmenVnn song-niakin'T. The Kiltie band knew that T was there to 

 learn Scotch songs, so with much pains they prepared a program. 

 Thirty-nine Kilties sent me an invitation to come. After the march- 

 ing and countermarchin!?. the first soncr was begun. — a bitter dis- 

 appointment to me, for it was not croinsr to be Scotch at nil. With 

 mnch nnins thev had prepared an American profrrnm. T love Ameri 

 can things, but they played for me, with all the appreciation of » 

 thing done to ploaso somebody else, what the lender told me wns an 

 American sonp^. and T said: "No. no. no." But he wns Scotch, and 

 he snid: "T ken it is." And what was the song? Tt was "After 

 the Ball is Over," truly written bv an American. Yon remembpr 

 it, and so do T. Then they played a second song, and it was like 

 unto the first. Tt was: "Hot time in the Old Town Toniirht." And 

 they began a third song, and at the close of it they said to me: "We 

 learned that in Germany." I replied: "I think it is the best Ameri- 



