Year: 1879

One winter evening about fifty years


ago, & pOst-Chaise With a single gentle


man inside it drove up to the North Of


Scotland, where passengers who were


going to cross to Orkneys usually spent


the night. The gentleman, whom We


will call Mr.. MacT, was the owner Of a


large estate, and an old house which had


belonged to his family for hudreds of


years, in the mainland, or chief Of the


Orkney islands, and was now about to


visit his property. 1t was clustering,


stormy night, but that only made more


pleasant the cigar and glass Of whisky,


and the cracking of the wOOd-tire by


which MacT. sat chatting with the land


lord, who was an old friend both Of his


father and himself and who was proud


of entertaining the ''yOung laird" as he


called him, with his widest tales of adj


venture on the sea. They did not, how


ever. sit late, for the Orkney packet


sailed very early iR the morning, and


hIacT. soon found himself in his cOzy,


Well-appointed little bedroom. The wind


was chanting a grand Berserker melody


and the sea was roaring a deep bass


accompaniment. MaCT. loved those
sounds, for they had often been the lull-
ably of his childhood, and soon fell asleep.
For some hours he slept without an
image or thought reaching his mind but
at length, when the morning was gllm-
mering gray in the East, strange
dream came to trouble him. He dreamed
that he was in the ancient banquetlng
hall Of his old house, in the Mainland,
sitting at the head of a very long table.
The banqueting hall was now in reality
almost a ruin, but in his dream MacE.
saw it hung with a hundred lights. The
table was filed on both sides, and he
thought he glanced curiously down its
length to see who his guests were. As
he looked, he shuddered in his dream.
Those who sat at the table with him
were all his dead ancestors for many
generations back. He knew their faces
and dresses well from their portraits
in the picture gallery. Next to him sat
his own father, who had died about
year before. And at the bottom of the
table sat fair-haired man in a dress of
skins, who was a Morse chieftain, the
founder of the family. 1t seemed to him
that he sat for some minutes as if spell
bound, while the spectators murmured
together in low, hollow tones. AT length
they all rose, and slowly, one by one, in
turns, left the hall. But before they
went, each one paused at the door, and
turning, raised his hand in warning
fixed his eyes on MacT., and
said, in a deep voice, the word Beware"
.'The packet starts in twenty minutes,
sir" cried a loud voice at the door, rous-
ing MacT. suddenly from sleep. Con-
fused at first, yet soon remembering
where he was, he sprung out Of bed and !
began hurriedly to dress himself Being !
a bad sailor, his first glance was natur-
ally enough, at the sea, close to which |
the inn stood. The wind had risen in |
the night. The waves thundered on the !
shore, and the little Orkney packet was
tossing up and down like a limpet she'll |
AS he gazed, his strange dream arose up /
with sudden distinctness before MacT!'s .
mind. He was infected with a good /.
ieal of thorough Scotch superstition.
Besides he did not much like the look /
1f the sea, and so he resolved not TO go


ill tomorrow That day the Orkney
packet was lost with every man on
board, and MacT. and his little wife,
who was left at home with the babies,
lad to thank that warning dream for
his life ,-