" Your old mother, John ? " I queried sur- The 

 prisedly : " I did not know you had any one 

 at your croft." and the 



" Aye, but I have that, though she's a poor Clan of 

 frail auld body an' never gangs further frae P eace - 

 the hoose than the byre an' the hen-yaird. 

 If ye want to hear more aboot thae birds 

 an' the auld stories forenenst them, she'd mak' 

 you welcome, an' we'd be glad an' prood to 

 offer ye tea : an' I'll just tell ye this, that 

 ye'll gie her muckle pleasure if yell hae a 

 crack wi' her in the Gaelic, an' let her tell 

 her auld tales in't. She's Hielan', ye ken : 

 tho' my faither was oot o' Forfar, Glen Isla 

 way. She's never got hold o' the English yet 

 varra weel, an' to my sorrow I've never learnt 

 the auld tongue, takin' after my faither in 

 that, dour lowland body as he was. I ken 

 enough to follow her sangs, an' a few words 

 forbye, just enough to gie us a change as ye 

 micht say." 



I gladly accepted the shepherd's courteous 

 offer ; and so it was that an hour later we 

 found ourselves at Scaur -van, as his croft 

 was called, from its nearness to a great 

 bleached crag that rose out of the heather 

 like a light-ship in a lonely sea. By this time, 

 his prognostications or those rather of the 

 wheeling and wailing lapwings, and the moun- 



245 



