206 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



ical facts utilized in my work in the past twenty 

 years; but the thought of how much DUTHIE really 

 knows that has never yet been got from him in the 

 interest of the cattle-breeding world makes me regret 

 that I have not accepted a repeated invitation, 

 cordially pressed, to occupy for a season the com- 

 fortable farmhouse at Gollynie, where we could have 

 time to get his recollections of Aberdeenshire history 

 covering a span of half a century. Some day such 

 a dream might come true; but he has already passed 

 three score and ten, and it's a far cry these awful 

 days from Chicago to those bonnie Aberdonian banks 

 and braes. 



Mr. DUTHIE is a man of wonderful conversational 

 powers, possessing an inexhaustible store of Scot- 

 ticisms, and once kept everybody entertained so 

 long over the afternoon tea at the late Mrs. MUIR- 

 HEAD'S a sister of Mr. JOHN GLAY and then wife of 

 LORD ABERDEEN'S estate manager that we almost 

 missed seeing the Shorthorns at Tillycairn entirely, 

 although I had journeyed across the Atlantic partly 

 for that particular purpose. In view of the effective 

 grouping of the best things there to be seen, that 

 awaited our final arrival late that afternoon, I have 

 always had a sneaking notion that there was "method 

 in his madness" in beguiling us so long with his 

 stories over Mrs. MUIRHEAD'S tea. 



