START IN THE MORNING. 219 



sound as a deerstalker, and I fancy no person sleeps more 

 soundly. I had preferred going to roost in the clean straw 

 to passing the night within the house, knowing by former 

 experience that Malcolm's shealing was tenanted by myriads 

 of nocturnal insects, which, like the ancient Britons, "feri 

 hospitibus," would have left me but little quiet during the 

 night. The last time I had slept there, all the fleas in the 

 shealing, " novitatis avidi," had issued out, and falling on the 

 body of the unlucky stranger, had attacked me in such 

 numbers, that unanimity only was wanting in their pro- 

 ceedings to have enabled them to carry me off bodily. 

 Tempted by the clean and fresh appearance of the good lady's 

 sheets, I had trusted my tired limbs to their snowy white- 

 ness, when, sallying forth from every crevice and every corner, 

 thousands of these obnoxious insects had hopped on to me, 

 to enjoy the treat of a supper of English blood. The natives 

 of these places seem quite callous to everything of the kind. 



To continue, however. After making good use of the burn 

 that rippled along within fifty yards of the house, and having 

 eaten a most alarming quantity of the composition called 

 porridge, I sallied forth alone. Malcolm and his brother 

 would fain have accompanied me, but the latter had to attend 

 some gathering of sheep in a different direction, and Malcolm 

 was obliged to go for the stag killed yesterday. He therefore 

 only walked a few hundred yards up the first hill with me, 

 in order to impress well on my recollection the different 

 glens and burns he wished me to look at on my way to the 

 place of rendezvous with old Donald. The sun was but a 

 little distance above the horizon when I gained the summit 

 of a tolerably long and steep ascent immediately behind 

 Malcolm's house. A blackcock or two rose wild from some 

 cairn of stones or hillock, where they had been enjoying the 

 earliest rays of the sun, and flew back over my head to take 

 .shelter in the scattered birch thickets near the shealing ; and 

 here and there a pack of grouse rose, alighting again before 

 they had flown a hundred yards, as if fully understanding 

 that grouse shooting was not the order of the day, and, 

 strutting along with their necks stretched up, seemed to care 

 little for my presence. The ring-ousel flitted from rock to 

 rock, uttering its wild and sweet note. Truly there is great 

 enjoyment gained by the early riser ; everything in nature 

 has a pleasant aspect, and seems happy and thankful to see 

 the light of another sun. 



