The Portland daily press., 1893-05-31
"MICKLE MOUTH

| Inc feuuS OF the SCOttlSh clans are q
kroverbial part and parcel of the history
OF Scotland. When not at war with
England, the Scotch have delighted te
pick some petty quarrel with each otser.
and the occasion has often been too
trifing to mention in history, while the
consequences have often risen to matters
iof deep and sometimes fatal Importance.
But underneath all this some comic
characteristic of the nation has peeped
out, some Ill concealed craft or cunning
or close handed thrift indicative Of the
canny Scotsman. and which belong to
no other people in such excess as to those
of the "borler."
; One of these feuds, now existing only
in Evolutionary lore, lay between the
SCOTS and Murrays, and at one time it
seemed only too probable that the repre-
sentative of the former clan would meet
a disgraceful death at the hands of the
chief Of the latter.
Sir Gideon Murray, the laird Of Eli
bank, was o chosen favorite of King
James VI, who afterward bestowed upon
him the office of deputy treasurer OF
Scotland. The laird was an honest, up
right man, but subject to fits OF passion,
which, however, seldom lasted long and
In the end rarely did anybody any harm.
His wife was careful, painstaking
woman, good wife and mother, and in
her youth must have been esteemed a
fair specimen of Scotch beauty.
At the age of SO, the time of which we
write, she was still bright and blooming,
her fair, yellowish hair still untouched
by the frosts of time, and her good ma
tured smile displaying teeth of the pur-
est white, without thanks to the dentist,
even had his arthourished at that period
/ The good dame was very fond of bril-
liant colors, and besides the endless va
riety Of tartans with which she decked
herself not only her husbands
colors, but those of her mothers family
a of her own maiden name-she en-
HANGED the effect by numberless pink,
bright red or corn colored cap ribbons,
so that the good gentlewoman gave the
appea sce Of a flower garden.
Goo looking % the lady of EGbank
much for the three daughters, who were
the sole heirs OF Sir Gideon, all his sons
having, to his great disappo died
in infancy. We may, however, except
one as being tolerably pretty. OF these
daughters, Allie, the eldest, was red
haired, freckle faced lassie, large and
awkward, with the dullest Of all blue
eyes, sslilze pewter buttons drappit in a
crock O white butter" the lads said.
The second, Jean, was prin, bony,
old maidish woman, still and quiet,
hardly speaking the day through, except
to warn her sisters that they were talk
ing too loudly.
The youngest daughter was fair and
well formed and as merry and sunny as
the day is long, but in spite of pair of
bright blue eyes and straight nose her
face was made homely by mouth SO
wide and thick Tipped that she was
known from her earliest childhood by
the sobriquet of 9'Mickle Mouthed Meg"
all over Elibank town, and indeed
wherever the laird and his family We're
known. No one was more sensible of
her looks than Meg herself. She de-
clared that she was afraid to cape or
even sing, lest her head should be divided
into two parts and she often expressed
hope that in heaven she would not be
recognized by her mouth.
This sunny disposition was everything
to the Murray family. It softened the
asperities Of poor Jean, whose youth had
suffered sad disappointment, and it
made amends by dts kindness for the
thoughtless and awkward rudeness of
Allie. 1t covered over the absnrdities of
Lady Murray's costume, and it was more
than an even match for the laird's pas
sionate temper, subduing it by softness
only, as the horse tanner rules his fiery
subjects. Yet the good and amiable
Scottish maiden was invariably called
by her uuinviting nickname, and the
young lairds never toasted the neigh
boring beauties without bringing in
"Mickle Mouthed Meg" as foil to the
loneliness Of their own charmers.
Meg had her own admirers. The gar
dener's lame boy from his armchair by
the window, and his little table loaded
with books and pictures, cakes and
fruits, the gift of Margaret Murray, new
or failed to hail her coming as that Of
his guardian angel, and old, decrepit
Sawny Macintire, the schoolmaster of
Elibank when Sir Gideon was young
man, could never be made to think that
Meg was not a perfect beauty, and when
he had exhausted every old Latin epithet
upon the child Of bis former pupil and
the youths continued to laugh disdain-
fully at the amplitude of her mouth
Sawny would say, Hech, sirsl but the
1assie's heart is as muckle as hail reg
iment of such as your ain"
Meg had just entered her twenty fifth
year when her father came home sud-
henly from the next town, where he had
been on business, and alarmed the fam
lily with the news that he had heard.
Young William Scott, the son of Scott
Of Harden, was already making large
incursions upon lands belonging to the
laird Of Elibank, and his depredations
were made in open defiance of all law,
and in manner worthy of the most