CHINA
FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT,
CHAPTER I
The McNeill in Extremes
"YOU had better be coming
in, Sheila McDonald,
and tell me the news, I will give you a cup of tea, in your hand, and you will be sitting down by the fire."
Sine had turned round hospi- tably, and the other woman came in and seated herself near the blazing peats.
"I am very anxious to hear how. The McNeill is," Sine said, when she had filled the cup of tea, and given it to the other. "The news wass very bad yesterday-indeed, they wass telling me that he wass dying. Have you heard again? There wass two doctors from Oban and Glasgow, I have heard. Have you been up to the Castle, Sheila ?.... gat
"Yes, and there wass no better news, Sine, and they have done everything. The English lady, his wife, would have sent to Lon-, don, if she could!” She stopped and sipped the tea, with a melan- choly shake of the head.
"Yes, they have done everything with the doctors," Sine said. "But they have not waved the fairy
Short Story
flag, and that iss the best they could do. It has been waved twice, Sheila, as you know, but there is still one time more—" she paused. "But, of course, they would only laugh at me, as a poor old crazy Highland woman, if I spoke about it."
A boy's voice spoke, then, from the other side of the fire, where Sine's grandson Dougal McDoù- gal, was sitting mending a net,
"Granny, he said. "No one. would ever call you a crazy wo- man. But why can we not get in, and wave the flag, Granny?"
“Because we are only poor. people, and tenants of a croft," Sine said, "and he iss the McNeill up at the Castle. They would not allow me to go in, Dougal; the yard footmen up at the Castle would send me away!"
NOVEMBER 4, 1938
"THE FAIRY FLAG"
"I wish I could go and wave the flag," Dougal put in, then, as if cogitating over the matter.
"He
as
"Could I not go up to the Castle. Sine, and get the flag and wave it? What wass it you said, that they called when they waved it before?" "It was the fairy wife, long ago, who married a McNeill," Sine said, pouring out another cup of tea for the guest. married a changeling wife you have heard, Sheila and then he got tired of her, because she wass always going back at night, and dancing with the fairies on the magic ring on the hillside. So he put her away, and married a human girl, And she wept sore, but she left him the fairy flag, and it has been in the Castle, in the stone gallery, where the pictures. are, ever since. And she told him to wave the flag when he wass in any trouble, or danger, and she would help him, and he would be saved! And McNeills were saved twice, through her, as they could tell you, but there iss still one time left. If I could
By Ethel F: Heddle
only get up to the Castle, and wave the flag, the McNeill would be saved now!"
They fell into silence, then, Sheila nodding her head rather dejectedly.
"It iss a pity that they would not let you in, Sine," she said. "But they are very proud and grand now; and the English lady, who iss his wife, iss not under- standing or believing anything about it--she being English, and not a Highlander."
"Yes, that iss true!" Sine said. "But she iss a very lovely woman, and the McNeill will think all the world of her, and she will be heart-broken if he dies."
Sheila got up to go, presently, still shaking her head lugubriously and murmuring, in Gaelic, that it was "i dreadful pity that the McNeill would go and marry an "Yes, they are very high and
Englishwoman, when he could mighty, these English footmen," Shella sald with a long sigh. “I
have married a Campbell of Islay, have seen them myself, and they or a McLean of Duart.” have spoken to me..
"And what will you be want- ing?" they have said, and just looked at me very proud and high, and I have gone away. Well, you see, they are English, and quality, Sine.'
"The McNeill las not like that, and he iss the chief of the clan, Dougal put in at this point. "He was very kind to me always, and took me in, boat, and I went out with him on the "moor, and he let me carry a game-bag, and gave, me sandwiches, Sipe, and he laughed at me and called me Neill of Edisay's piper's doo bairnie's wee laddie!"",
designa
ed to chuckle over the tion, and Sine nodded I hend emphatically,
"Well, it iss what you said you were, to the Englishmen!!! she said, and both women nodded.`
When the door had closed, Dou- gal put down his work, and came over, and stood beside his grand- mother.
He was a curious little boy, with a fringe of red hair, and blue eyes
that had the gaze of one work
ed to look across the sea, long distances of heather and bracken and grey lichenclad boulders, →→
"Granny,” he said softly. “What. about me going up to the Castle, and getting the flag, and waving it? I could do it, Granny, quite well, for I would slip in past the footmen, and go, up the stairs to the tower where the gallery is. Yes, Sine, and I know where the flag is kept, for I wass there with the game-keeper, when the McNeill showed it, himself, and laughed, and said he Wass keeping it for the last wave!
iss a queer little flag, Sine, with something embroidered on it, and he told the game-keeper a story about it, that I did not under- stand, and he said, 'Oh, yes, the people here all believe that it wass. the gift of the fairies!" Could I not go, Sine, and try?"
The old woman looked at him fixedly for a moment, though she gently shook her head.
She, herself, had told Dougal stories of the fairies, and, many other tales of the island, and he was a queer little boy, and was far advanced for his age; also, he was a clever purposeful little chap, highly thought of by the McNeill, and the gentlemen who took him out shooting with them. She was turning it over in her mind, and weighing possibilities.
Of course, she herself. believed in the flag, and in the fairies; and she was asking herself as she could not go to the Castle, if it was possible that Dougal could get the flag, and wave it, and bring back the spirit of the changeling bride of the old. McNeill. Was -it possible? As she stood there, two people who were passing, saw her and came up, both looking very grave and sad, with more than the usual Celtic melancholy on their lined faces. Sine knew them both, and nodded gravely. "I hope you well, Mona, and your husband?" she said cour- teously. "I haf heard there is a lot of illness in the Island and the McNeill no better."
"They are saying in the Island that he will die, Sinè,” Mona said gloomily. "And I am hearing that the next heir is in New Zea- land, and will know nothing about the Highlands and will then be going up to London. That is just come here and shoot, Sine, and what I am hearing."
"And there will be an end to the new pier, and the new schoolhouse, Sine," her husband put in drearily. "And of anyone know- ing us, and calling us by our names. The McNeill, who is one of us, and respected and known by all, will die-the ways of the Lord are strange, Sine! This new man to rule at the Castle, and the McNeill to die!"
He gave & kind of groan, but Sine felt almost a little impatient;
1
blue sea, seen across the wonder- ful white pebbles and broken shells on the shore, a fringe of sea-pinks and sea-lavender above, on the machair. Was it possible that the spirit of that old fairy bride still lingered, and was powerful?
Of course, they would laugh at her, even most of the Island would laugh at her; because she was old, and dreamed of such things; and, of course, the Eng- lish lady would say something rather patronising and-condescen- ding about "Highland superati- tion," but, all the same, 'Sine had a lingering obstinate belief, and, of course, there could be no harm in trying!
So she put her wrinkled old hand on the boy's shoulder, and looked deep into his eyes, that were the colour of her own, and sometimes had much the same ex- pression: Strength and courage, and something of the far-away.
"Dougal," she said, "You had better put on your strong boots, and go round to the Castle, by the beach, and if the great door is
open, Dougal, just slip in, and go round by the back stairs to the other aide of the Castle, where there is the entrance to the old tower: And if anyone wass to ask you, Dougal, what you were doing there, you could say, 'I haf come with a message from my grandmother, Sine, who knew the McNeill, when he wass a baby, and had him often in her arms. That iss true, Dougal: and then, when `you get up, you will see the flag in the box with the glass top-" She broke off suddenly. "But will it not be locked: Dougal?":
"No, Sine, I heard the McNeill say that the key was lost, and that there wass a shoe of Flora Me- Donald's, too, beside the flag. Do not be afraid, Sine, I will get the flag, and I will wave it, and call upon the fairy's name "Deirdre,' iss that not it?"
28
"Yes, that iss right, Dougal! Now here is a piece for you, first, and then you will be going, long as it iss dusk, and no one will see you when you get to the Castle. It iss best to do things like that when the sun iss down, and the moon not up.”
.
She went to the door with the boy, after she had given him a great piece of oat-cake and honey, and she stood and watched while
hẻ crept over the machair,' and
"Well, he is not dead yet, down the winding road which led Pharaig" she said.
When they had gone, she looked out for a moment at the rim of
UGAS
to the great pile of the Castle, growing a little indistinct now, on (Continued on Page 7)
HUNTLEY