would poor Jamie and the weans do, wanting their titties?'

'Ye are but a bairn, Mary,' was Jean's answer. 'We shall do
better for Jamie by wedding some great lords in the far country
than by waiting here at home.'

'And James will soon have a queen of his own to guide him,'
added Eleanor.

'I'll no quit Jamie or the weans,' said little Mary resolutely,
turning back as the three-year-old boy elicited a squall from
the eighteen-months one.

'Johnnie! Johnnie! what gars ye tak' away wee Andie's claw?
Here, my mannie.'

And she was kneeling on the leads, making peace over the
precious crab's claw, which, with a few cockles and mussels, was
the choicest toy of these forlorn young Stewarts; for Stewarts
they all were, though the three youngest, the weans, as they
were called, were only half-brothers to the rest.

Nothing, in point of fact, could have been much more forlorn
than the condition of all. The father of the elder ones,
James I., the flower of the whole Stewart race, had nine years
before fallen a victim to the savage revenge and ferocity of the
lawless men whom he had vainly endeavoured to restrain, leaving
an only son of six years old and six young daughters. His wife,
Joanna, once the Nightingale of Windsor, had wreaked vengeance
in so barbarous a manner as to increase the dislike to her as an