"Where are you taking all that cake?" said his mother, who came from
Ayrshire and wanted a reason for everything. In the north there is no
need for reasons. There everything is either a judgment or a
dispensation, according to whether it happens to your neighbour or
yourself.

"I am no' coming hame for ony dinner," said Simeon, who adopted a
modified dialect to suit his mother. With his father he spoke English
only, in a curious sing-song tone but excellent of accent.

Mrs. Lauder--Simeon's mother, that is--accepted the explanation without
remark, and Simeon passed out of her department.

"Mind ye are no' to gang intil the boat!" she cried after him; but
Simeon was apparently too far away to hear.

He looked cautiously up the side of the Laggan Light to see that his
father was still polishing at his morning brasses and reflectors along
with Donald. Then he ran very swiftly through a little storehouse, and
took down a musket from the wall. A powder-flask and some shot completed
his outfit; and with a prayer that his father might not see him, Simeon
sped to the trysting-stone. As it happened, his father was oblivious and
the pilfered gun unseen.

Anna's experience had been quite different. Her procedure was much
simpler. She found her father sitting in his office, constructed of
rough boards. He frowned continuously at plans of dovetailed stones, and
rubbed his head at the side till he was rapidly rubbing it bare.