Big Game - A Story for Girls

"We are a happy family, we are, we are, we are!" hummed the Chieftain,

under his breath, as he cast a twinkling glance across the table to

where Margot sat, as demure to outward seeming as she was excited at

heart.

"Why do you avoid me?" he demanded of her plumply, the next morning,

when, after several unsuccessful attempts, he ran her to earth by the

side of the tarn. "Scurry out of my way like a frightened bunny

whenever I come along. Won't do, you know! Not going to trouble myself

to do you good turns, if you round on me afterwards, and avoid me as if

I were the plague. What's it all about?"

"Nothing," stammered Margot confusedly. "I only felt rather-- You do

tease, you know, and your eyes twinkle so mischievously that I felt that

discretion was the better part of valour."

"Well, don't do it again then, that's all, or I may turn rusty and upset

the apple-cart. No reason that I know of why I should be ostracised,

because I try to help my fellow-creatures. What are you doing over

here? Reading? What a waste of time! Much better come and chuck

stones into the lake with me."

Margot's brown eyes widened in reproof.

"Don't you like books?"

"Hate the sight of 'em! Especially on a holiday. Never want to see as

much as a line of print from the time I leave home to the time I return.

Especially,"--his eyes twinkled in the mischievous manner to which

exception had just been taken--"especially poetry! Don't mind my saying

so, do you?"

"Not a bit," returned Margot promptly, tossing her first stone into the

lake with a vehemence which held more than a suspicion of temper. "Of

course I never--one would never--expect you to like it. It would be

the last thing one would expect--"

"Too fat?"

She blushed at that, and had the grace to look a trifle distressed.

"Oh, not that altogether. It's a `Je ne sais quoi,' don't you know.

One could tell at a glance that you were not a literary man."

The Chieftain chuckled, bent down to gather a handful of stones, and

raised a red smiling face to hers.

"Well, well, we can't all be geniuses, you know! One in a glen is about

as much as you can expect to meet in these hard times. But I can chuck

stones with the best of 'em. That one was a good dozen yards beyond

your last throw. Put your back into it, and see what you can do. It's

a capital way of letting off steam."