By the time that Toddles had finished making an inventory of the books, the slip-shod servant brought in the tea on a large tray. Stepwell, who rather prided himself upon his skill in the art of pouring out tea, took the head of the table, and left Richard to superintend some unknown compound, which smoked and smelt strong under cover of a vegetable dish. As soon as they had quenched their thirst with a good cup of strong tea, Toddles removed the cover, and prepared to serve the dish before him.

"Why, Tom, what's this stuff?" said he, gazing mournfully at the substance.

"Let me see.

I suppose they call it ham and eggs; but look, there

is no difference in colour between them."

"And as both, Tom, are a dirty yellow, I don't think they'll be very nice. It seems to me that the only difference between the compounds is that one is softer than the other, and that both are bad. Try a piece, Tom!"

"No, thank you, Dick. You begin first."

Toddles, always ready to please, put a small piece in his mouth, and immediately made a grimace indicative of utter disgust. It was all he could do to swallow it, and he would not have succeeded if he had not washed it down with a good cup of tea.

"What are we to eat, Tom? We can't touch this stuff, and the servant said that they had nothing else in the house."

"Oh, here's some oatcake-fine stuff this is, Dick, to take after a long ride on a cold winter's morning."

"Yes, but we have not had a ride, and this is not winter!" answered poor Toddles, mournfully, for he felt very hungry. "And besides, Tom, you know that I don't like oat-cake, it sticks to your teeth in such a pertinacious manner, and I'm not accustomed to it.”

"Nor I either to such stuff as this. Ugh, it's stale and rotten!" said Tom, after swallowing a small piece. "What are we to do, Dick? Here, man, have another cup of tea-that's good, at any rate; but, really, it's too bad to make us pay for food we cannot eat."

"Bother the money-it is not that I mind; I want my tea and cannot get it. Oh, come, here's a loaf of bread and some rhubarb jam— let's attack it!"

The chronicler of this tour dares not take upon himself to say how many cups of tea the two tourists drank that night. The number was large, for both admitted they had never tasted better tea and worse food. As soon as the tea-things had been cleared away, Toddles amused himself by carefully examining the ornaments and pictures with which the

room was adorned.

In most instances they seemed to be the work of a local artist. One of them represented a view in the neighbourhood, in which the hills were on the tops of the houses, while a man, who was driving cows, seemed in imminent danger of falling upon them the very next step he took. The mantel-piece was adorned with a pair of china lovers, who looked like Siamese twins, for their sides were joined together, and several china dogs, whose hind legs formed a part of their body, and who were daubed with red spots in an unpleasantly suggestive manner of sore places. Both of the tourists in their sojourn in Scotland were very much impressed with the number of china dogs they met with. On the mantel-piece of almost every room they entered were to be seen about half-a-dozen of these animals, differing only one from the other in size. The red spots in each instance occupied the same position, and the face of each was covered with a large daub of black paint, to represent the place where Nature would have placed the muzzle. They next turned their attention to the books with which the room was furnished. For about half an hour Toddles tried to explain to his friend some of the history of the Ten Years' Conflict, and was very much surprised when (at twenty minutes past ten) Stepwell suggested that it was time to go to bed. The slip-shod servant, who had probably formed a good opinion of the slighted ham and eggs by eating them herself, now entered with a candlestick. After giving her the necessary injunctions that they should be called at half-past five, Toddles and Stepwell retired to their room, in the hopes of finding better accommodation there than they had met with downstairs. In the corner of the irregularly-shaped bedroom in which the tourists were to pass the night stood a small four-poster, adorned with a quilt made of square pieces of calico, and curtains of the same material. Close to the bed was a press, which was like Goldsmith's, probably,— "The chest contrived a double debt to pay,

A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day."

This article of furniture was the cause of some alarm to Stepwell, who thought that perhaps somebody might be hidden in it. The presence, on a small rickety washstand, of an almost hairless toothbrush, which seemed as if it had been used for cleaning boots, led Toddles to infer that the bedroom was the one in which the landlady usually slept, and this idea was confirmed by the presence, on the mantel-piece, of the following strange articles :

1. A bottle of pickles.

2. Some ginger for the throat.
3. A bottle of mushroom catsup.

4. A bottle of cod-liver oil.

5. A Seltzer water-bottle (empty).

6. A black Hollands' bottle (empty).

After taking the inventory, and expressing his regret at the state of the two last-mentioned bottles, Toddles pulled off his clothes and jumped into bed, taking care to occupy

that half which was nearest to the wall. Stepwell, however, who never passed the night in a strange room without examining the cupboards and doors, was again alarmed at a large door, which opened into another room, and which had no key. This unpleasant fact made him spend half an hour in manufacturing a wonderful barricade, the chief peculiarities of which were (so Toddles said) that anybody could get into the room, and that nobody could get out. When all these arrangements

were complete, Stepwell put out the light and joined Toddles.

"I say, Tom, how coarse the sheets are! Don't you feel little lumps all over them? Why, it's like going to sleep upon a nutmeg-grater."

"Nonsense, Dick, you are far too particular. Just like all you London people. Ah, man, when you have been a little longer in the country you won't mind a little discomfort-I am sure that I don't-only, Dick, I wish you would not take up quite so much room-you have almost kicked me out of bed."

"Well, it's not my fault; besides, you said you did not mind a little discomfort !"

"No more I do, but I like a night's rest. There, now, you have pulled all the clothes off!"

"No, I have not, Tom-it's you who have got them all."

"I! Oh, come, I like that!"

"Well, I can tell you I am shivering with cold, and I'm sure I shall be stiff to-morrow."

"Then, if you are, I shall have rheumatism, for I have not an inch of the sheet upon me."

"And so they went on, scolding each other, bewailing their lot, loathing the room, the landlady, the place, and everything about it. Just as the clock struck twelve Toddles went off to sleep, with the best part of the sheets around him, for poor Stepwell was sitting mournfully at the open window, studying the stars, and longing for sunrise.

"What, only 12s. 6d. each!" said Toddles, on paying his share; "why, Tom, this is a wholesome reform with a vengeance."

TODDLES'S HIGHLAND TOUR.

A

THE FIFTH DAY-MOY TO THE BRIDGE OF CARR.

T last the welcome sound of taps against the door was heard, and at half-past five Stepwell and Toddles woke out of a sound sleep, each simultaneously declaring that he had not closed his eyes all night. They were not long in leaving their couch, and dressed as quickly as they could, although their operations were somewhat marred by the size of the room, which was so small that the one had almost to get into a corner to allow the other to pass. On their arrival downstairs, the servant asked them what they would have for breakfast, and seemed in no way annoyed on being told that they intended to walk on to Freeburn, a posting-house about four miles distant. The cost of their entertainment amounted to five shillings, and with a feeling of relief they left the house and resumed their journey. They soon passed a gloomy little loch on the left, dotted with islands, and known as Loch Moy. On the largest island a fine obelisk of granite, about seventy feet high, has been erected to the memory of the late Sir Æneas Mackintosh, of Mackintosh, chief of the clan. On another island is the castle of the clan, and at one end a small artificial isle of stones, formerly used as the place of confinement for the prisoners taken by the Macphersons.

The road for the next three miles and a half boasted of little worthy of remark. It was a wild heather-covered tract, studded here and there with huts and hillocks, which were again capped by desolate mountains rising on all sides.

At twenty minutes past seven the coach from Inverness to Dunkeld and Perth passed. On the roof were some of the people from whom the tourists had parted at Inverness. These looked down and nodded affably, and probably thought that the two poor fellows on the road could not afford such a luxury as a coach-ride.

For three miles and a half Toddles and Stepwell walked gaily along the high road, until at about ten minutes to eight they reached a comfortable inn, called Freeburn. As it was here they intended to breakfast, Toddles at once asked a buxom-looking girl what they could have. When one remembers that these two young men had walked a dozen miles the night before, and then went tealess to bed, but not to