The Men of the Moss-Hags Part 51

"Mr. Crockett has given us a book that is full of strength and charms.

Humour and pathos mingle with delightful effect.... It is hard to imagine that any lover of literature could be altogether wanting in appreciation of their quaint homeliness and pleasant realism. To come across a volume like this is indeed refres.h.i.+ng. No wailing pessimism mars our enjoyment with its dreary disbelief in humanity; every page exhibits a robust faith in the higher possibilities of our nature, and the result is distinctly successful. Amongst the gems of the collection we may indicate 'The Heather Lintie,' a simple sketch, instinct with quiet, penetrating pathos; whilst as a specimen of acute and kindly humour, 'A Knight-Errant of the Streets,' with its sequel, 'The Progress of Cleg Kelly,' would be hard to surpa.s.s.... The author has constructed stories full of grace and charm. Those to whom humanity in its most primitive and least complex aspect is interesting will find real pleasure in studying Mr. Crockett's strong and sympathetic presentment of Scottish peasant life."--_The Speaker._

THE RAIDERS.

Being Some Pa.s.sages in the Life of John Faa, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt.

"... The things that befell us in those strange years when the hill outlaws collogued with the wild freetraders of the Holland traffic, and fell upon us to the destruction of the life of man, the carrying away of much b.e.s.t.i.a.l, besides the putting of many of His Majesty's lieges in fear....

"It was with May Mischief that all the terrible blast of storm began (as indeed most storms among men ever do begin with a bonny la.s.s, like that concerning Helen of Troy, which lasted ten years and of which men speak to this day). The tale began with May Mischief, as you shall hear. I keep the old name still, though the years have gone by, and though now in any talks of the old days, and of all our ancient ploys, there are the bairns to be considered. But it is necessary that ere the memory quite die out, some of us who saw these things should write them down."--_The Foreword._