Chapter 15

CHAPTER XV LOCH LOMOND AND LOCH KATRINE

HARRY bore Nell carefully down the steeps of Arthur's Seat,
and, accompanied by James Starr and Jack Ryan, they reached
Lambert's Hotel. There a good breakfast restored their strength,
and they began to make further plans for an excursion to
the Highland lakes.

Nell was now refreshed, and able to look boldly forth into the sunshine,
while her lungs with ease inhaled the free and healthful air.
Her eyes learned gladly to know the harmonious varieties of color
as they rested on the green trees, the azure skies, and all the endless
shades of lovely flowers and plants.

The railway train, which they entered at the Waverley Station, conveyed
Nell and her friends to Glasgow. There, from the new bridge across
the Clyde, they watched the curious sea-like movement of the river.
After a night's rest at Comrie's Royal Hotel, they betook themselves
to the terminus of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, from whence
a train would rapidly carry them, by way of Dumbarton and Balloch,
to the southern extremity of Loch Lomond.

"Now for the land of Rob Roy and Fergus MacIvor!--the scenery
immortalized by the poetical descriptions of Walter Scott,"
exclaimed James Starr. "You don't know this country, Jack?"

"Only by its songs, Mr. Starr," replied Jack; "and judging by those,
it must be grand."

"So it is, so it is!" cried the engineer, "and our dear Nell
shall see it to the best advantage."

A steamboat, the SINCLAIR by name, awaited tourists about to make
the excursion to the lakes. Nell and her companions went on board.
The day had begun in brilliant sunshine, free from the British fogs
which so often veil the skies.

The passengers were determined to lose none of the beauties of nature
to be displayed during the thirty miles' voyage. Nell, seated between
James Starr and Harry, drank in with every faculty the magnificent poetry
with which lovely Scottish scenery is fraught. Numerous small isles and
islets soon appeared, as though thickly sown on the bosom of the lake.
The SINCLAIR steamed her way among

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them, while between them glimpses could be had of quiet valleys,
or wild rocky gorges on the mainland.

"Nell," said James Starr, "every island here has its legend,
perhaps its song, as well as the mountains which overshadow the lake.
One may, without much exaggeration, say that the history of this
country is written in gigantic characters of mountains and islands."

Nell listened, but these fighting stories made her sad.
Why all that bloodshed on plains which to her seemed enormous,
and where surely there must have been room for everybody?

The shores of the lake form a little harbor at Luss. Nell