CHAP. i. THE INCHES AT ABERDEEN. 7 



fully pummelled and scratched before they could 

 make their escape. They reached Kettle in a deplor- 

 able state, but without the child ! 



All hopes of his recovery in that quarter being 

 ended, another body of men prepared to set out in 

 another direction. But at this moment they were 

 amazed by a scream outside the house. All eyes were 

 turned to the door, when in rushed the pig-wife, and, 

 without the least ceremony, threw the child into his 

 mother's lap. " There, woman, there's yer bairn ! but 

 for God's sake keep him awa frae yon place, or he 

 may fare war next time." " But whar was he ?" they 

 exclaimed in a breath. " Whar wud he be but below 

 Bet and her pigs a' nicht ! "* 



When the family removed to Aberdeen, young 

 Edward was in his glory. The place where he lived 

 was close to the outside of the town. He was enabled 

 to roam into the country by way of Deeside and Ferry- 

 hill. Close at hand were the Inches, not the Inches 

 of to-day but the beautiful green Inches of sixty 

 years ago, covered with waving algse. There, too, 

 grew the scurvy grass, and the beautiful sea daisy. 

 Between the Inches, were channels through which the 



* The question occurred, How did the child get amongst the 

 pigs ? He could not have climbed over the paling ; he must have 

 been lifted over. There was an old sweetheart of the quondam 

 militiaman, whom he had deserted in favour of Margaret Mitchell. 

 It was believed that she had maliciously lifted the child over the 

 palings, and put him amongst the pigs, most probably from spite 

 against her old lover. 



