230 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXIV. 



were as hard as boards with the intense frost that 

 had come on as the evening set in. However, 

 " Igne levatur hieins " I was soon thawed to a 

 proper consistency, and immediately began to 

 superintend the cooking of some of our game. In 

 as short a time as possible a stew worthy of Meg 

 Merrilies herself was prepared ; but with true 

 Highland taste Donald preferred, or pretended to 

 prefer, some "braxy" mutton which the shepherd's 

 wife set before him, the odour of which was enough 

 to breed the plague or the cholera anywhere but in 

 a Highland hut. " 'Deed, your Honour," said the 

 shepherd, "it's no that bad, considering we did not 

 find the sheep for some days after it died, and the 

 corbies had pulled it about a bit. The weather 

 was gey an' wet at the time, or it would not have 

 had such a high flavour ; but we steeped it a day 

 or so, to get rid of the greenness of the meat." I 

 thought to myself that, " considering " all this, to- 

 gether with the additional fact that the sheep had 

 died of a kind of inward mortification, the bowels 

 of Donald and the shepherd must be stronger even 

 than the "Dura illia messorum" which we read 

 of at school. 



Our host was tolerably confident that we should 

 manage to get a few ptarmigan if we started early, 

 so as to make the most of the day, and if the snow 



