EARLY BOTANICAL RAMBLES. 1/3 



There happened to be in the Tillyfourie moss that day 

 a large number of people engaged in cutting peats, who 

 saw John leave the road and enter the bog. Thinking, like 

 practical folks, that a traveller with a tall hat could have 

 done so only to shorten his way, and seeing him disappear 

 from view in an old part of the moss honeycombed with 

 dangerous peat haggs, one of the workers kindly sent a lad 

 to show him a better path, and, if necessary, to help him 

 on his way. The boy found him on the edge of a deep 

 black pool, hat off, and stick in hand, trying with its 

 crooked end to draw the floating plant towards him. The 

 botanist was so intent that he did not notice the lad, who, 

 coming close to the pool, shouted at the pitch of his voice, 

 after trying in vain to draw his attention once or twice 

 before, "Hey, man! I was bidden tell ye, ye wu'd get a 

 better road oot this way." Startled at the sudden cry, for 

 he thought himself alone, John raised himself to reply, and 

 with the quick movement sank ankle-deep in the mud. 

 He told him that he was not seeking a road, and then 

 resumed his novel fishing. When the boy returned to his 

 companions, he was asked if he had put the man on the 

 right way. " Na, na," said he ; " he's a queer chap yon. He 

 doesna want to ken a gweed road ; and yonder he is, up till 

 the knees in watter, working in a peat hole wi' his stick ! " 

 " The man maun be daft," said his father ; and so said all 

 the rest, who dropped work to gaze in the direction in which 

 John had gone out of sight. Their opinion of his sanity 

 was only confirmed when he speedily reappeared on the 

 bank above the pool, with the dripping, dirty weed in the 

 one hand, and his hat, bundle and staff in the other. They 

 were, however, greatly relieved when they saw him walk 



