222 WILD FLOWERS OF SCOTLAND 



tion, and had got more than they wanted. The 

 coach rattles up and takes them off'. The house is 

 left to those who are to stay there. 



" I would just hae to be doin' wi' a seat at the 

 kitchen fire, as the room was let to a lady and 

 gentleman frae Liverpool." 



That is how my hostess puts it. Worse fate by 

 far might have befallen me. 



Happily, the gentleman overhears, and cour- 

 teously invites me to join them. The blind is 

 drawn, the lamp lit, and chairs placed round the 

 table. In a rubber of whist we forget the storm, 

 or only hear it at intervals, to the increase of our 

 sense of comfort by contrast. The louder it raves, 

 the more we hug ourselves. Had you ever a 

 rubber of whist under similar conditions ? If so, 

 you will know all it means. 



I am abroad, bright and early. Never fresher 

 morning broke over these or any other hills. The 

 son, a shepherd like his father, is called in, and 

 gives minute directions how to go so as to avoid 

 the peat-hags. I am sure I understand him, and 

 so take my way up the slope. The sundew grows 

 in moist places ; so does the water forget-me-not, 

 the rarest of its kind to be found on these hills. 



Of course I do not avoid the peat-hags. Indeed 



