Agnes obeyed, and Peggy promptly answered the summons.

Peggy was an old servant of the family, having been with the Major ever since his return from India. She belonged to a class of servants once, I have been told, common in Scotland, but of whom only a few specimens are now extant, and these are becoming yearly more rare. Equally simple-minded and kind-hearted, her attachment to the family, of which she regarded herself as a member, was accompanied with a species of veneration sometimes a little absurd in its effects. Whatever any of them said, or did, or thought, must infallibly be right. Had they affirmed that the moon was black, Peggy would most undoubtedly have disbelieved the evidence of her own senses. Yet was she neither a hypocrite nor a flatterer. In the presence of her master and mistress she frequently expressed herself with a freedom which would have astonished and horrified the oily-tongued and smooth-mannered domestic of a fashionable establishment. "Worthy Maister Grieve," the minister whom Peggy "sat

under," was the only human being she deemed at all comparable in point of wisdom with Major Irvine and his daughters. Indeed, in this respect, she considered all four about equal, and never surpassed by mortal wight save Solomon himself. In general Peggy was almost sufficiently punctual, orderly, and methodical to satisfy even the Major. Nothing could well be more unlike her, or indeed any of the household, than to commit such a solecism as to carry off her master's gloves. Even Phemy, Peggy's assistant,for the latter presided over every department in the household economy,-could hardly be suspected of such a delinquency. To Major Irvine's demand as to what she had done with his gloves, Peggy replied,

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'Deed, sir, I haena seen your gloves; they're where ye pat them for me."

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Phemy must have taken them, then; let her be called."

"Na, sir, it's nae use, it canna hae been Phamy, for she's ne'er been out o' the kitchen, sin' I saw ye wi' them i' the garden; an' it canna hae been Wattie aither,

for he has been mawing and delving ever sin' he got his denner."

"It must have been somebody, I tell you; the gloves could not go away of themselves, and Miss Irvine has been working in the drawing-room for some hours, and it is very unlike Miss Caroline to do anything of that kind."

"Weel, sir, it was not me, though I maun say it's an unco

like thing where

Dinna till.

they can have gane till.

(in a deprecating tone)

Dinna ye think that aiblins ye

may hae pitten them some gate yoursel' ?" “Why, woman, where can I have put them? I am particularly careful always to put them in the

At this moment Caroline, who had vanished a few minutes before, reappeared, bearing triumphantly in her hand the lost gloves.

"Where did you find them ?" cried all in a breath.

"On a branch of the variegated hollytree at the corner," she replied, with a smile and an arch glance at her father.

Like most persons who have only themselves to blame, Major Irvine was at first

disposed to seek relief for his irritated feelings in some cause of displeasure against an other person; but a glance at the joyous countenance of his youthful daughter chased the wrinkles from his brow, and banished every thought of anger from his heart.

"Blessings on her bonny een," cried Peggy, regarding her young mistress with affectionate pride; "ye see, Maister, Miss Caroline is far cleverer nor ony o' us; she was aye auld-farrant. Wha but hersel' wad e'er hae thought o' looking on the buss ?"

"Ah Carry, Carry!" said her father, fondly; then added, "I remember now leaving them there when I carried the trowel to the tool-house. If Wattie had not been so careless as to leave the trowel where it ought not to have been, we might have been spared all this trouble."

Agnes was now ready, her shawl pinned with all due regard to straightness, and her close straw bonnet neatly tied.

"Come, Carry, dear," she said, "and get on your things."

"I am not going to get on any things,

Agnes. That soft cool breeze is so refreshing, blowing about one's head and neck after such a hot, hot day; but before we go to the field, papa, let us look at Wattie's improvements in the garden. I see, among other things, he has removed that rose-tree from the west end of the house to the middle of the circular bed I raked so beautifully yesterday morning."

"The d- he has!" cried the Major, thrown quite off his guard by this piece of intelligence, and hastening in the direction in which he supposed he should find the delinquent; "that man is, without exception, the most obstinate fool that" "Oh papa!" interrupted Caroline.

"Only yesterday morning," continued the Major, with rather more calmness, "I positively ordered him to let that bush remain where it was; and whatever Mr. Wattie may think, I can tell him I mean to be master in my own house. My orders are not to be disobeyed with impunity, and that I shall let him see."

They were now within sight of Wattie, who was busy transplanting flowers into a