28 LOCH CRERAN. 



the snow-white cloth, and watched the peregrine soar 

 away from the invaded premises, and arranged the blae- 

 berries and the hill heather to the best advantage, but 

 Lismore is near, and Tirifour " Castle," that ruined 

 broch, is a novelty to some of the party. 



The beach is rough, the tide low, and the cliffs ragged 

 and steep under the ancient Pictish tower, but the ladies 

 wander round the rough stones of the shore, and strike 

 inland in search of a shop. Actually there is a shop ; 

 but we are obliged to waylay them further shoreward, 

 and delude them back through the long clover of the 

 limestone island to the boat. They will rather face the 

 cliffs than the rude shore again, and we feel like driving 

 a team of unbroken fillies over a mountain road as we 

 gather them shorewards along the rude path. Carefully 

 we hand them down the last rough stage, but a leap is 

 inevitable, and recklessly faced by the merry hearted. 

 What did you think, my friend, as your comfortable com- 

 panion shrieked and fled from your waiting arms ? We 

 own to perturbation, in spite of the laughter mingled with 

 the shrieks of horror. Some frightful calamity, surely ! 

 but it only turns out to be a somewhat rude treatment 

 of the contents of the new patent incubator ! The de- 

 struction has not been so complete or disastrous as was 

 anticipated, and after consigning the broken egg and 

 contained embryonic black-backed gull to the waves, the 

 " patent incubators " seemed still well supplied, and the 

 ladies more careful of any rude approaches. For not 

 only the gull's but the duck's nest had been surreptitiously 

 stolen from, in hopes of successful incubation. Once 

 the ladies had reached home and " unbosomed " their 

 cares, the eggs were placed under a clocking hen, and, 

 no doubt to its astonishment, next morning three goos- 



