276 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST, 



This John did, more downcast than he came. Her mother, 

 who had been absent during the brief colloquy, asked her 

 daughter on her return, why she laughed so to herself. She 

 told her the tale, and continued, " and there, he's awa' doon 

 the back o' the hedge wi' his answer." Even after this, John 

 still visited her mother's house when he passed it with his 

 flowers. In spite of this repulse, the daughter's opinion of 

 John continued to be very high. He was, she said, " as 

 gude a bein' as ever was born, and I hope I'll meet him in 

 a better warld." 



In his confidential moments, John used to tell a good 

 friend of a love passage he had with a lady, curious but 

 characteristic in its way. Who the fair dame was cannot 

 now be known ; but that is immaterial. Matters matri- 

 monial had gone so far between them that an appointment 

 was made to meet on a hill top between the Gadie and the 

 Don, to come if possible to a final settlement. They both 

 arrived at the trysting place dressed in their best, on a 

 bonny day in spring. Wandering through the heather at 

 due distance apart, they talked in a business-like way 

 about their mutual possessions and their disposal of them. 

 At last, being somewhat tired with their journey, John 

 proposed to rest awhile. She sat down on one stone, and 

 he took his place on another some distance off; and on 

 these cold stones, in what would seem to most an ultra 

 matter-of-fact style, which John used to give in detail, they 

 continued their discourse on subjects that might change their 

 destinies for life. But something displeased the lady, and 

 she would not be reconciled. No understanding was arrived 

 at, and there on that bleak hill-top, they parted, after 

 shaking hands, each taking a separate way homewards, 



