IN THE HIGHLANDS 207 



solemn scene with dry eyes. On the second day, some 

 distance east of Achnasheen, we halted to give the men 

 a little rest and some food. And as I spread them out 

 on the sloping grassy braes above the road and saw food 

 handed round by the captains, it was difficult not to 

 think of the Kedeemer when He miraculously fed the 

 thousands who came to Him in a wilderness probably 

 not very unlike the bleak Achnasheen moor. Before 

 we moved away again every man had added a stone 

 to the cairn on the spot where the coffin had rested. 

 Is it not there to this day ? Among those five hundred 

 surely there were some not faultless in head or heart, 

 yet sure I am that had more than a word of kindly 

 thanks been offered to any one for his loss of a week's 

 work and about one hundred and thirty miles of most 

 fatiguing walking, it would have fared ill with the offerer. 

 Every man was there with his heart aching sadly for 

 us. All were substantially and well dressed in their 

 sailor homespun blue clothes, such as they may be seen 

 wearing going to or returning from the herring-fishing. 

 They were all dressed alike and quite sufficiently sombre 

 for mourners ; not a rag of moleskin or a patched knee or 

 elbow was visible; all were in their Sunday-best clothes. 

 ** Our next halt was at the west entrance to Tarvie 

 Wood, opposite to Roagie Island, where another cairn 

 still tells where the coffin rested while the bearers had 

 some more food. There Tulloch met us with his de- 

 tachment from Loch Broom, about thirty in number, and 

 had he not just sold the Gruinord property he could 

 and would have met us with a regiment like our own, but 

 I fear our men would not willingly have given up their 



