IN THE HIGHLANDS 199 



When the minister's corn was ripe every male and female 

 in the neighbourhood was pressed into his service with 

 sickle in hand, and to cheer up his squad of perhaps 

 not very willing workers he always had a piper to play 

 to them. Before leaving his gang of harvesters to go 

 back to the manse for his dinner, he used to walk forward 

 a good bit in front of his reapers, and plant his walking- 

 stick in the corn, and call out to the squad : " Now, good 

 folks, I shall expect you to get the reaping done as far 

 as my stick by the time I return from my dinner, so 

 do your best." 



No sooner was the minister out of sight round the 

 corner than someone ran forward, removed the stick, 

 and planted it a good bit behind instead of in front of 

 them. Then the whole gang would start dancing, and 

 would dance furiously till the time drew near for the 

 minister's return. In this way they imposed on the 

 stupid old minister, who on his return would say : " Well 

 done, my squad. You have not only reached my stick, 

 but have got a good bit beyond it." 



On one occasion his reverence thought he would like to 

 pass the night at the shieling, where two young girls 

 were in charge of his cows. The shieling consisted of two 

 very small bothies, one of which contained the wooden 

 dishes with the milk, and the other had just room in it 

 for the two girls to pass the night side by side on a bed 

 of heather with a plaid over them. The girls were in 

 the habit of finding just sufficient room close behind their 

 heads for the big wooden receptacle which held all the 

 week's supply of cream, so that it might ripen sooner 

 from the warmth of their bodies, and turn more quickly 



