39^ JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



plants he had loved so long and so well. I felt how 

 pleasant and instructive a companion he must have been in 

 his younger days, when mind and body were full of his 

 enthusiastic vigour. 



We wandered slowly down the hill again towards the burn, 

 he leading the way, and entered the cottage. We were 

 welcomed by Mrs. Allanach, a striking-looking old dame, 

 with abundant traces in face and figure of the tall, 

 handsome and good-looking woman of earlier life, though 

 now bent with rheumatism and needing a staff. The house 

 was kept sweetly clean, both " but and ben," * by the 

 youngest daughter, a growing pretty girl, active and bright- 

 smiling, who bade fair to reproduce her mother's youth. 



We sat in the cheerful kitchen chatting for some time 

 with the vigorous old lady, who is a splendid talker in first- 

 rate Scotch, while the young housekeeper prepared a meal 

 for us in " the best room." Mrs. Allanach told me that the 

 last year had made a " terrible odds " on John, and that he 

 was now not like the same man, as if natural decay were 

 rapidly beginning to tell upon him. She was sorry I had not 

 seen and known him in his more active years. At length, 

 John and I retired to "the other end," where a homely but 

 substantial meal was neatly laid down on a snowy cloth, 

 consisting chiefly of the home produce of the field and the 

 byre. We did full justice to the viands after our appetis- 

 ing walk, seasoning our rustic meal with " smooth discourse 

 and joyous thought." 



After finishing, we once more entered his own room 



* In the kitchen and the better room, for there are but two in such 

 cottages. The words are derived from be-out and be-in, the better 

 room being reckoned the inmost one or sanctuary. 



