10.  That bay down there, with its white sands and massive rocks, its still expanse of water, and its background of mountain peaks palely covered by the yellow moonlight, seemed really a home for a magic princess who was shut off from all the world.  But here, in front of them, was another sort of sea, and another sort of life,—­a small fishing village hidden under a cloud of pale peat smoke, and fronting the great waters of the Atlantic itself, which lay under a gloom of violet clouds.

11.  On the way home it was again Lavender’s good fortune to walk with Sheila across the moorland path they had traversed some little time before.  And now the moon was still higher in the heavens, and the yellow lane of light that crossed the violet waters of Loch Roag quivered in a deeper gold.  The night air was scented with the Dutch clover growing down by the shore.  They could hear the curlew whistling and the plover calling amid that monotonous plash of the waves that murmured all around the coast.

12.  When they returned to the house, the darker waters of the Atlantic and the purple clouds of the west were shut out from sight; and before them there was only the liquid plain of Loch Roag, with its pathway of yellow fire, and far away on the other side the shoulders and peaks of the southern mountains, that had grown gray and clear and sharp in the beautiful twilight.  And this was Sheila’s home.

Definitions.—­2.  Gla’mour (pro. gla’moor), witchery, or a charm on the eyes, making them see things differently from what they really are. 3.  Loch (pro. lok), a lake, a bay or arm of the sea. 7.  Peat, a kind of turf used for fuel. 11.  Cur’lew (pro. kur’lu), an aquatic bird which takes its name from its cry.  Plov’er (pro. pluv’er), a game bird frequenting river banks and the sea-shore.

Notes.—­Of the characters mentioned in this selection, Sheila is a young Scotch girl living on the small island of Borva, which her father owns; it lies just west of Lewis, one of the Hebrides.  Ingram is an old friend and frequent visitor, while Lavender, a friend of Ingram’s, is on his first visit to the island.

2.  Thule (pro.  Thu’le) is the name given by an ancient Greek navigator, Pytheas, to the northernmost region of Europe.  The exact locality of Thule is a disputed point.

3.  Loch Roag (pro.  Rog’) is all inlet of the sea, west of Lewis, in which Borva is situated.

4.  Borvabost, a little town at Borva.  Bost means an inhabited place.

9.  Mealasabhal and Suainabhal are mountains on the island of Lewis.  Bhal is Gaelic for mountain.

CXII.  THE GREAT VOICES.