410 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



warning that ere very long they must finally part 

 company. 



One day, the Rev. Mr. Williams met the old man on 

 the road, now tottering somewhat more than before. After 

 friendly greeting, "John," said he, "you're getting the 

 worse of the wear, I fear." " Ow, ay," brightly returned he, 

 "jist at the fa'in, like an aul' tumble-doon, feal * dike!" 

 Though, after this, his strength wonderfully revived, he 

 was never the hale old traveller along the paths of time 

 he had formerly been. Yet, when the lady called on him 

 in July of that year, and asked him to get the Linncca 

 borealis for her, as a memento of himself and his cottage, 

 the old spirit returned, and he fearlessly and unflinchingly 

 undertook for it the long and trying journey to Manabattock 

 Hill, in Tullynessle, on the other side of the Vale.f But 

 that terrible night to the aged botanist, alone on the 

 mountain, in the rain and the storm, was an experience at 

 his advanced years from which he never fully rallied ; and 

 no doubt, in some degree, it hastened the end. As he 

 remarked, in speaking of it to a friend who inquired how 

 he had fared, " I never cowered \ that day." 



Before the close of autumn, nevertheless, he was able 

 to pay his friends in Aberdeen a visit, for his vitality at 

 his age was extraordinary. But he took four hours to 

 find out James Black's house, poor old man, and when he 

 arrived there, was so exhausted that, overcoming his un- 

 conquerable shyness even with intimates, he asked for 



* That is, a dike made of turf, which, when it does begin to decay, 

 falls quickly and looks very dilapidated. 



t See Chap. XXIX. p. 318. 



\ " Recovered," the word being a contraction of the French re- 

 couvrir, to recover ; another bit of old French in the Scotch tongue. 



