The First-Foot, (John Mackay Wilson)
The Romance of the Siege of Perth, (Alexander Leighton)
The Professor's Tales, (Professor Thomas Gillespie)
Peat-casting Time
The Medal
The Meeting at St Boswell's, (Oliver Richardson)
The Story of May Darling, (John Francis Smith)
I Canna Be Fashed; Or, Willie Grant's Confessions, (John MackayWilson)
Tales of the East Neuk of Fife, (Matthew Forster Conolly)
The Castle of Crail; Or, King David and Maude
The Legend of the Church of Abercrombie
The Romance of the May
Caleb Crabbin, (Alexander Leighton)
The Serjeant's Tales, (John Howell)
The Imprudent Marriage
The Bewildered Student, (John Bethune)]
The Crooked Comyn, (Alexander Leighton)
Notwithstanding the shortness of their days, the bitterness of theirfrosts, and the fury of their storms, December and January are merrymonths. First comes old Christmas, shaking his hoary locks, belike, inthe shape of snow-drift, and laughing, well-pleased, beneath his crownof mistletoe, over the smoking sirloin and the savoury goose. There isnot a child on the south side of the Borders who longs not for thecoming of merry Christmas: it is their holiday of holidays, their seasonof play and of presents; and old and young shake hands with Christmas,and with each other. And even on the northern side of "the river," and"the ideal line by fancy drawn," which "divide the sister kingdoms,"there are thousands who welcome and forget not "blithe Yule Day." Nextcomes the New Year—the bottle, the hot pint, and the first-foot—andwe might notice, also, Hansel Monday, and "Auld Hansel Monanday," whichfoll