HEATHER JOCK. 



white wild cattle feed, as they have done since Malcolm 

 Fleming slew one with his spear and saved the King. 



"The minstrel's features of the western Scottish 

 type, hard as flint, yet kindly ; eyes like dullish marbles 

 made of glass such as the children in Bridge of Weir 

 called bools ; his hair like wire ; his mouth worn open, 

 and his nose a trap for snuff ; hands out of all propor- 

 tion large, and feet like planks; his knees inclining to 

 what the Scotch call 'shauchlin,' and imparting to his 

 walk that skipping action which age sometimes be- 

 stows on those who in their youth have passed a seden- 

 tary life, the true faux bassu, although without the 

 hump, having acquired the carriage of hunchback by 

 diligence or sloth. In fact, he seemed a sort of cross 

 between the low class Indian, such as one sees about a 

 town in South Dakota, and an ourang outang, which 

 had somehow got itself baptized. From Kilmalcolm 

 to Mauchline, from Dairy to Ayr, at a Kilwinning 

 papings ; at races, meets, fairs, trysts ; at country house 

 or moorland farm, to each and all he wandered and was 

 welcome. His repertory was composed of one song 

 Annie Laurie sung with humorous effects at break- 

 neck speed, jingling his bells and jumping about from 

 side to side, just like a Texan cowboy in Sherman, 

 Dallas, or some Pan Handle town, during the process 

 of a barroom fight to dodge the bullets. At the end 

 he signified his wish to lay him down to die for the 

 object of his song, and did so, elevating, after the 

 fashion of expiring folk, his feet into the air and wig- 

 gling to and fro his boots, adorned with what the 

 Scotch call Jackets.' He died at the age of eighty- 

 two." 



