ON THE COAST OF AEEAN 



puir creatures as they are. In his opinion 

 the body politic, no less than the ecclesiastic, is 

 in a parlous condition. These workin' folk 

 have sent a' things tapsalteerie wi' their strikes 

 and their high wages. When he was in the 

 quarry he was weel content with his twa shillings 

 a day ; and the best mason among them a' got 

 no more than three. An' what then ; they were 

 better off a lang sight than they are now. 



When the old man goes slowly away, with 

 steps that move like the minute hand of a clock, 

 to take his accustomed outlook on the beach, 

 another friend of the past comes up to me. He 

 is not garrulous, but silent, and yet his face is 

 full of language. He puts his shaggy and lion- 

 coloured head upon my knee, and when his eye 

 meets mine there is so much meaning in it that 

 I know he recognises me as one who last year 

 was his dead master's friend. This is Dugald's 

 dog Dugald the shepherd, who knew all the 

 ins and outs of Corrie, and with whom I often 



