"Miss Jean, won't you sing us a song? I'm convinced that you sing Scots
songs quite perfectly."

Jean laughed. "I can sing Scots songs in a way, but I have a voice about
as big as a sparrow's. If it would amuse you I'll try."

So Jean sat down to the piano and sang "Proud Maisie," and "Colin's
Cattle," and one or two other old songs.

"I wonder," said Peter Reid, "if you know a song my mother used to
sing--'Strathairlie'?"

"Indeed I do. It's one I like very much. I have it here in this little
book." She struck a few simple chords and began to sing: it was a
lilting, haunting tune, and the words were "old and plain."

"O, the lift is high and blue,
And the new mune glints through,
On the bonnie corn-fields o' Strathairlie;
Ma ship's in Largo Bay,
And I ken weel the way
Up the steep, steep banks o' Strathairlie.

When I sailed ower the sea,
A laddie bold and free,
The corn sprang green on Strathairlie!
When I come back again,
It's an auld man walks his lane
Slow and sad ower the fields o' Strathairlie.