the addition of two dogs, a tame squirrel, and mackaw, completed the
establishment.






CHAPTER II.

"What transport to retrace our early plays,
Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supplied;
The woods, the mountains, and the warbling maze
Of the wild brooks." THOMSON.

MANY were the dreary muirs and rugged mountains her Ladyship had to
encounter in her progress to Glenfern Castle; and, but for the hope of
the new world that awaited her beyond those formidable barriers, her
delicate frame and still more sensitive feelings must have sunk beneath
the horrors of such a journey. But she remembered the Duchess had said
the inns and roads were execrable; and the face of the country, as well
as the lower orders of people, frightful; but what signified those
things? There were balls, and sailing parties, and rowing matches, and
shooting parties, and fishing parties, and parties of every description;
and the certainty of being recompensed by the festivities of Glenfern
Castle, reconciled her to the ruggedness of the approach.

Douglas had left his paternal home and native hills when only eight
years of age. A rich relation of his mother's happening to visit them at
that time, took a fancy to the boy; and, under promise of making him his