WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



I could not refrain from joining in the persecution, and 

 Willie Young was kept for ten minutes, turning from side 

 to side, on hearing his name called by his unseen torment- 

 ors, till he got so terribly frightened that I thought it as 

 well to show myself, or I firmly believe the man would have 

 gone mad. I never saw a poor fellow more relieved in my 

 life than he was on seeing that his persecutors were mere 

 flesh and blood like himself, and not spirits of the air or 

 flood as he had imagined. Having laughed at him for his 

 fright, and appeased his somewhat reasonable anger, we 

 found out from him that this stag was constantly about the 

 same place, and had got so accustomed to seeing the shep- 

 herd pass to and fro, that he invariably returned to the 

 same glen within a few hours. 



It was getting late, so we postponed attacking him till 

 the next morning. The shepherd also told us that although 

 the stag had not particularly fine antlers, that he was one 

 of the heaviest and largest deer that had been in that part 

 of the country for some years. He knew him by his large 

 track,and also by his colour, which was peculiarly light.We 

 accompanied Willie Young home to his domicile; and hav- 

 ing taken our frugal supper of porridge and milk, followed, 

 however, by some whisky-and-water of no mean flavour 

 and strength, which Mr Young informed us in confidence 

 had been made by some "lads down the glen yonder," we 

 retired to our-sleeping-places. For my own part, I took up 

 my quarters in the building dignified by the name of barn, 

 where, rolled in my plaid, and burrowed in the straw, I slept 

 free from the ten thousand nightly visitants called fleas, 

 which would have eaten me up in Willie Young's house, 



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