Category: Adventure

Kenneth McAlpine: A Tale of Mountain, Moorland and Sea

Scene: A Highland mountain, clad almost to the summit in purple heather. On the right a ravine, half hidden by drooping birch trees. On the left a pine forest. Sheep grazing in the foreground. Smoke upcurling from a humble cottage in the distance. A shepherd-boy talking to his...

Chapters

1. CHAPTER ONE.

Scene: A Highland mountain, clad almost to the summit in purple heather. On the right a ravine, half hidden by drooping birch trees. On the left a pine forest. Sheep grazing in...

12. CHAPTER TWELVE.

"Adieu, adieu; my native land Fades o'er the waters blue; The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew. Yon sun that sets upon the sea We follow in his...

2. CHAPTER TWO.

Scene: A long, low-thatched cottage, in the midst of a wild, bleak moorland. No other hut nor house in sight. Around the cottage is a garden or kail-yard, with a fence of flat,...

5. CHAPTER FIVE.

Scene: The fairy's glen high up among the mountains. Kenneth seated, book in hand, on the top of the fairy knoll, which stands out strangely green against the purples and browns...

24. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

Scene: Glen Alva. Down in the clachan and lowlands, and around the mansion house, the autumnal tints are on the trees; the chestnuts, the lime and the maples have turned a rich...

16. CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"Yes, I own to it; no need for this matter-of-fact memory of mine to nudge me so, and keep on reminding me of the flight of sly old Father Time. 'Tis twenty years ago this very...

17. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

"`In the year 18--, I sailed from Hull in the good barque _Constance_, bound for Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, in pursuit of seals and walruses. I was a very young man then, and, i...

19. CHAPTER NINETEEN.

Scene:--Daybreak on the unknown river. The stream is a good mile wide here; its banks are lined with a cloudland of green, the great trees trailing their branches in the water....

20. CHAPTER TWENTY.

Scene: The interior of King 'Ntango's palace. The king seated on a mat in the middle of the floor of the principal apartment--a large square room with walls of mud and grass. Th...

18. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

Scene: Night on an unknown river, which, dark and deep and sluggish, is rolling onwards to the distant ocean through a wild and beautiful district in the interior, nay, but ill...

4. CHAPTER FOUR.

Scene: Half-way down the glen, where heather and patches of tilled land end, and woodland commences. Where the stream goes wimpling and swirling round the boulders, underneath t...

3. CHAPTER THREE.

"I've heard my reverend Grannie say In lanely glens ye like to stray, Or where auld ruined castles grey Nod to the moon. Ye fright the nightly wanderer's way, Wi' eldritch croon."

6. CHAPTER SIX.

Scene: Glen Alva in a winter garb. A morning in December. A glorious morning and yet how great a change from the day before. For on the west coast of Scotland changes do come so...

23. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

"Dear land of my birth, far from thee have I been, By streamlets so flowery and valleys so green, In vain seeking fortune; but still as of yore The home of my heart is the Vale...

11. CHAPTER ELEVEN.

A more lovely view than that which met the eye of a stranger, who had seated himself on Cotago Cliff this evening, it was never surely the lot of mortal man to behold. It was on...

7. CHAPTER SEVEN.

Scene: Kenneth at home in his mother's humble cot. A fire of peats and wood burning on the low hearth. Kenneth's mother reading the good Book with spectacles on her eyes. Kennet...

21. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

Scene: In the backwoods of British America. Kenneth, Archie, and Harvey are seen sitting around the camp fire. It is a whole hour after sunset, and yet there is plenty of light...

13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"On, on the vessel flies; the land is gone, And winds are rude in Biscay's sleepless bay; Four days are sped, but with the fifth anon, New shores descried make every bosom gay."

14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

"Now round the galley fire the merry crew, With song and yarn and best of cheer, Have gathered. And storms may rage, and seas may rise, And thunders roll; they know not fear."

9. CHAPTER NINE.

"When simmer comes smilin' o'er mountain and lea, The green haughs and glens are pleasant to see, And pleasant the hum o' the merry wild bee, When the rose, when the rose and li...

22. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

"The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all, Knight and page and household squire Loitered through the lofty hall, Or crowded round the ample fire. The stag-hounds, weary of the...

8. CHAPTER EIGHT.

Scene: Dugald's garden on the cliff top. You have to climb up to it from the road that goes winding through a wooded ravine, up a few steep gravel steps. It is spring-time, and...

15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Scene: A ship in the Doldrums. It is the saucy _Brilliant_. She has been to Calcutta, and is now on her way back to the Cape. And it is Christmas Day, and she ship is in the Dol...

10. CHAPTER TEN.

Scene: The fairy glen once more, and in the background the fairy knoll. Kenneth and Archie, both looking very sad, are in the foreground by a new-made grave. Kenneth has been pl...