Adventures in Thule

. It was a warm, still, beautiful day. The sea was calm ; those low-lying islands out there were faint and pale like clouds. "Archie," said the elder (speaking in Gaelic, of which the following is a translation), " I saw one of the French smacks go by this morning." " I saw her too," replied the younger lad, who was the schoolmaster's son. There was nothing said for a time. The bees hummed amongst the clover; the collie lying near sleepily winked his eyes ; and Colin M'Calmont, the taller of the two lads, kept his gaze directed on the pale blue islands out at the horizon. At length he said,? " Archie, my father is a hard-working man ; and it is not easy now to make the farms pay, with the rents high and sheep not selling well at the market. My father has not his troubles to seek, as the minister says. And to think that these Frenchmen should be allowed to go and kill a sheep, just as they want it, when they are going by Farriskeir or Rua ; that is what angers me." " And me too," said Archie Livingston, " though it is not my father's sheep they kill. It angers me because they are Frenchmen ; yes, and thieves beside. But what can you do, Colin ? " They were still regarding the far islands. " If my father would let me," M'Calmont said, " I'd go out and live on Farriskeir until all the French smacks had gone by to Iceland. If they knew any one was on Farriskeir or Rua, that would be enough. They would soon talk about it amongst themselves, and the...