96 THIRST. 



bees — and the butterflees' — and the dragons? — a' wattin their 

 bills and their proboscisces in far-off rills, and rivers, and lochs ! 



blessed wild-dyucks, plouterin' in the water, strieckin' their- 

 sells up, and flappin' their flashin plumage in the pearly fresh- 

 ness ! A great big speeder, wi' a bag-belly, was rinnin' up my 

 leg, and I crushed it in my fierceness — the first inseck I ever 

 wantonly murdered syne I was a wean. I kenna whether at last 



1 swarfed or slept — but for certain sure I had a dream. I dreamt 

 that I was at hame — and that a tub o' whey was staunin' on the 

 kitchen dresser. I dook'd my head intil't, and sooked it dry to 

 the wood . Yet it slokened not my thrust, but aggravated a thousan* 

 fauld the torment o' my greed. A thunder-plump or water-spout 

 brak amang the hills — and in an instant a' the burns were on 

 spate ; the Yarrow roarin* red, and foaming as it were mad, — and 

 I thocht I cou'd hae drucken up a' its linns. 'Twas a brain fever 

 ye see sirs had stricken me — a sair stroke — and I was conscious 

 again o* lyin* broad awake in the desert, wi* my face up to the 

 cruel sky. I was the verra personification o' Thrust ! And felt 

 that I was ane of the Damned Dry, doom'd for his sins to leeve 

 beyond the reign o' the element to a' Eternity. Suddenly, like 

 a man shot in battle, I bounded up into the air — and ran off in 

 the convulsive energy o' dyin' natur — till doon I fell — and felt 

 that I was about indeed to expire. A sweet saft celestial green- 

 ness cooled my cheek as I lay, and my burnin' een — and then a 

 gleam o' something like a mighty diamond — a gleam that seemed 

 to comprehend within itsel* the haill universe — shone in upon 

 and through my being — I gaz*d upon't wi' a' my senses — mer- 

 cifu' heaven ! what was't but a Well in the wilderness, — water 

 — water — water, — and as 1 drank I prayed ! 



Hogg. 



I'LYMOUTH : G. P. HEARDER. 



