WANS

. first frost and the first snow came; and in
their train come Christmas and the Christ-
mas-tree and the joyful vision of Santa Claus.

Now to make a long story short, a polite
note had arrived at Cloan Den asking for the
pleasure of Miss W. V.’s company at Bar-
geddie Mains — about a mile and a half be-
yond the “ old ancient ”’ Caledonian Forest —
where a Christmas-tree was to be despoiled of
its fairy fruitage. The Bargeddie boys would
drive over for Miss W. V. in the afternoon,
and “ Uncle Big-John” would perhaps come
for the young lady in the evening, unless in-
deed he would change his mind and allow
her to stay all night.

Uncle Big-John, of course, did not change
his mind ; and about nine o’clock he reached
the Mains. It was a sharp moonlight night,
and the wide snowy strath sweeping away up
to the vast snow-muffled Bens looked like a
silvery expanse of fairyland. So far as I can
gather it must have been well on the early
side of ten when Littlejohn and W. V. (re-
joicing in the spoils of the Christmas-tree)
bade the Bargeddie people good-night and
started homeward — the child warmly muf-

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