and battlements.

"Whatever possessed folks to build there?" said Miss Elsie. "If they
were poor, it might be some excuse; but that those old swells, or
chiefs, should put up a castle in such a God-forsaken place gets ME."

"But don't you know, they WERE poor, according to our modern ideas, and
I fancy they built these things more for defense than show, and really
more to gather in cattle--like one of your Texan ranches--after a raid.
That is, I have heard so; I rather fancy that was the idea, wasn't it?"
It was the Englishman who had spoken, and was now looking around at the
other passengers as if in easy deference to local opinion.

"What raid?" said Miss Elsie, animatedly. "Oh, yes; I see--one of their
old border raids--moss-troopers. I used to like to read about them."

"I fancy, don't you know," said the Englishman slowly, "that it wasn't
exactly THAT sort of thing, you know, for it's a good way from the
border; but it was one of their raids upon their neighbors, to lift
their cattle--steal 'em, in fact. That's the way those chaps had. But
of course you've read all about that. You Americans, don't you know, are
all up in these historical matters."

"Eh, but they were often reprisals," said a Scotch passenger.

"I don't suppose they took much trouble to inquire if the beasts
belonged to an enemy," said the Englishman.

But here Miss Elsie spoke of castles generally, and averred that the
dearest wish of her life was to see Macbeth's castle at Glamis, where