seems hard that ancestors should have everything to do with settling
our nationality and our position in life, and we not have a word to
say. How nice it would be to select one's own after one had arrived
at years of discretion, or to adopt different ones according to the
country one chanced to be visiting! I am going to do it; it is
unusual, but there must be a pioneer in every good movement. Let me
think: do help me, Salemina! I am a Hamilton to begin with; I
might be descended from the logical Sir William himself, and thus
become the idol of the university set!"

"He died only about thirty years ago, and you would have to be his
daughter: that would never do," said Salemina. "Why don't you take
Thomas Hamilton, Earl of Melrose and Haddington? He was Secretary
of State, King's Advocate, Lord President of the Court of Session,
and all sorts of fine things. He was the one King James used to
call `Tam o' the Cowgate'!"

"Perfectly delightful! I don't care so much about his other titles,
but `Tam o' the Cowgate' is irresistible. I will take him. He was
my--what was he?"

"He was at least your great-great-great-great-grandfather; that is a
safe distance. Then there's that famous Jenny Geddes, who flung her
fauld-stule at the Dean in St. Giles',--she was a Hamilton too, if
you fancy her!"

"Yes, I'll take her with pleasure," I responded thankfully. "Of
course I don't know why she flung the stool,--it may have been very
reprehensible; but there is always good stuff in stool-flingers;
it's the sort of spirit one likes to inherit in diluted form. Now,