WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



ducedoutofhisbonnet — that wonderful blue bonnet, which, 

 like the bag in the fairy tale, contains anything and every- 

 thing which is required at a moment's notice. His bait was 

 the worms which in a somewhat sulky mood he kicked out 

 of their damp homes about the edge of the burn. Presently 

 the ring-ousel began to whistle on the hillside.and the cock 

 grouse to crow in the valley below us. Roused by these 

 omens of better weather, I looked out from our shelter, 

 and sawthe face of thesunstruggling to showitself through 

 the masses of cloud, while the rain fell in larger but more 

 scattered drops. In a quarter of an hour the clouds were 

 rapidly disappearing, and the face of the hill as quickly 

 opening to our view. We remained under shelter a few 

 minutes longer, when suddenly, as if by magic, or like the 

 lifting of the curtain at a theatre, the whole hill was per- 

 fectly clear from clouds, and looked more bright and splen- 

 didly beautiful than anything I hadever seen.Nosymptoms 

 were left of the rain, excepting the drops on the heather, 

 which shone like diamonds in the evening sun. The masses 

 of rock came out in every degree of light and sHade, from 

 dazzling white to the darkest purple, streaked here and 

 therewith the overpourings of the swollen rills and springs, 

 which danced and leapt from rock to rock, and from crag 

 to crag, looking like streams of silver. 



"How beautiful!" was both my inward and outward ex- 

 clamation. "Deed it's not just so dour as it was," said 

 Donald; "but, the Lord guide us! look at yon," he continu- 

 ed, fixing his eye on a distant slope, atthe same time slowly 

 winding up his line and pouching his trout, of which he had 

 caught a goodly number. "Tak your perspective, Sir, and 



406 



