So here’s defiance to the storm,
      And here’s a pledge in amber grape
  To him whose heart is always warm,
  And who conceals a lissome form
      In Mr. Peattie’s cape._

The following verses present an example of what Field could or could not do with the Scotch dialect, which he seldom attempted.  It was inspired by the fact that Peattie had been named after Scotland’s dearest poet and by his own fondness for Robert and Elia: 

  THE RETURN OF THE HIGHLANDER

  He touted low and veiled his bonnet
    When that he kenned his blushing Elia—­
  “Gude faith” he cried, “my bonny bride,
    I fashed mesell some wan wod steal ye!”

  “My bonny loon,” the gude wife answered,
    “When nane anither wod befriend me,
  Gainst mickle woes and muckle foes,
    Braw Donald Field did aft farfend me!”

  “Of all the bonnie heelon chiels
    There’s nane sae braw as this gude laddie—­
  Wi’ sike an arm to shield fro’ harm—­
    Wi’ sike a heart beneath his plaidie!”

  “Gin Sandy Knox or Sawney Dennis
    Or Dougal Thompson take delight in
  A-fashing we wi’ gholish glee—­
    Braw Donald Field wod do my fightin’!”

  Then Robert Peattie glowed wi’ pleasure;
    “I wod na do the deed o’ Sunday,
  But Donald Field shall be well mealed
    To-morrow, which I ken is Monday!”

  Then Robert took his gude wife hame
    And spread a feast o’ Finnan Haddie;
  In language soft he praised her aft,
    And aft she kiss her bonnie laddie.

  October 23d, 1887._

Another bit of personal verse in my scrap-book is suggested by the reference to Morgan Bates in the letter of September 12th in the form of an acrostic to Clara Doty Bates, his wife.  In the spring of 1886 Mr. and Mrs. Bates were occupying the home of Mrs. Coonley (now Mrs. Lydia Coonley Ward) on LaSalle Avenue, and one day Morgan was boasting in Field’s presence of the palatial nature of their quarters.  As the anniversary of Mrs. Bates’s birthday was at hand, Field immediately proposed that the entire editorial staff of the News should invite itself and its family to her hospitable board.  Bates was taken into the conspiracy of friendship, and on the evening of April 28th we descended on Mrs. Coonley’s North Side mansion and ransacked it from cellar to garret.  It was Field’s humor that day to set every picture in the house just enough awry to disturb Mrs. Bates’s sensitive vision.  When she arrived on the scene she greeted us with the utmost cordiality, as we did her.  But no matter where she stood, her eye would be annoyed by a picture-frame just out of plumb, and she would be excused while she straightened it.  Nearly every picture and portrait on the lower floor had been adjusted before she understood the motive of Field’s solicitude to see every painting and engraving in the house.  Unlike the regulation surprise party of society, we