112 LIFE OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. VI. 



and have a very bad pen, you will excuse the scrawl I send 

 you. On Thursday, James and I set off for Balloch, a farm 

 in Perthshire, about three miles from Muthil, where Mrs. 

 M.'s children are staying with their aunt. It was a very 

 wild day, the rain falling almost incessantly, but as there 

 was no help for it, we buttoned our surtouts about us, and, 

 staff in hand, set off, Mrs. M. accompanying us four miles 

 out of town. As we passed through the Bridge of Allan, I 

 was surprised by some one tapping at the glass of a window, 

 and looking round I recognised John Niven's goodly coun- 

 tenance. I stayed a few minutes with them, and set off 

 again, leaving Mrs. M. a little past the Bridge of Allan. 

 We trudged on manfully, through rain and wind, walking 

 four miles an hour without flinching for the first thirteen 

 miles. In this we were greatly assisted by a small drop of 

 brandy which our kind hostess insisted on our taking ; and 

 / by the fact that James was carrying out a quantity of 

 tobacco to Jean Scott [an old servant of the Russells]. As 

 it was not at all unlikely that the tobacco had been smuggled, 

 I exacted a tax on it, in the shape of a few inches off the 

 pigtail, and getting a light at the cottages we passed on the 

 road, I kept up my steam bravely. After reaching the 

 thirteenth milestone we stopped at an inn at Ardoch, and 

 as it was threatening a very heavy shower, we waited and 

 refreshed ourselves for nearly an hour. Thereafter all went 

 wrong. We left the turnpike road to take a short cut by an 

 old road over the moors. We got directions how to proceed 

 at the tollgate, and James, who professed to know the coun- 

 try, learned the route from the man. But, alas ! his memory 

 failed him at the critical place ; and after we had proceeded 

 about two miles we came to a place where two roads crossed, 

 leaving us three routes to choose among. No effort of 

 remembrance could enable either of us to recollect. the right 



