362 NETHER LOCHABER. 



and thoroughly through-and-through wet, you would have laughed 

 in the teeth of all the rain had you only met us ; and we much 

 doubt if any one who did not know us would just then have been 

 disposed to appraise ourselves and our whole belongings at the 

 value of a much bigger coin of the realm than a shabby florin. 

 And this is just the sort of weather it continues to be. You can- 

 not depend upon it for an hour. It is sunshine and blue above 

 just for five minutes ; it is all of a sudden gloomy and black as 

 Erebus, and raining so multitudinously that you are fain to draw 

 the skirts of your coat anyhow over your head and run for the 

 nearest shelter. When we are to have better weather let the 

 meteorologists, who ought to know, say. 



There is an old and frequent proverb, though rarely heard 

 now-a-days, to the effect that " there goes reason to the roasting of 

 eggs," the meaning of which, as we apprehend it, is that the smallest 

 culinary operation is of importance, and should be gone about with 

 judgment and care. If the proverb, however, in its actual words, 

 as a mere popular saw, is very much forgotten, it is a good sign of 

 our time that its spirit at least is in this our own day claiming no 

 little attention, as the establishment of " cookery classes," and the 

 praiseworthy attempts to disseminate culinary lore amongst the 

 people, abundantly testify. It has been said that the man who 

 makes two blades of grass to grow where only one blade grew 

 before is a benefactor to his species, and equally so, would we 

 venture to assert, is he a benefactor to the human race who shows 

 how any single article of food, usually cooked and served in an 

 unsatisfactory and tasteless fashion, may, with no extra expense 

 and little extra trouble, be made palatable and savoury. The other 

 day, landing from our boat, we went into a cottar's house close by 

 the sea, in a neighbouring district, just as the gudewife was pre- 

 paring the family dinner. A pot of new potatoes was boiling on 

 the fire, and as she knew that it would take us still some time to 



