138 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



These rude fields, thus carpeted out of all com- 

 parison, more delightfully than our own, were 

 o'ertopped and almost o'er-canopied with gowans. 

 Though this was doubtless owing to the bad soil 

 and worse tillage, still it made them gardens of 

 quite exceptional beauty. Within the dry-stone 

 dykes, in many instances, grew elder bushes 

 (bourtree). It seems almost unaccountable at first 

 that such a soft-wooded bush should nourish in 

 places so exposed and windy that not even the 

 hardiest of shrubs has a chance. But so it is ! 

 And but for this fact the outlook from the 

 windows of Orkney crofts would be still drearier. 



It chanced one day that a gentleman farmer or 

 as near an approach to one as the different con- 

 ditions of Orkney agricultural life permitted 

 passed our way. Struck with the strange 

 phenomenon of a tent where no tent should be, 

 and which, like Jonah's gourd, seemed to have 

 sprung in the night, he called to see what it might 

 mean ; and before leaving he courteously invited 

 us to return the visit at his house, some few miles 

 away. 



Two days later found us out on the search in 

 the direction indicated ; for, after three or four 

 weeks gipsying, a little social life of the un- 



