226 REMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



greatest night- coward I ever yet encountered. 

 He never would come to his work in the 

 morning, or go away home at night, without 

 being accompanied by either son or daughter, 

 or both ; for this night-fear ran strong in the 

 family, and the child that accompanied the 

 father was obliged to have a companion to 

 return home. The loss of labour that took 

 place in the family owing to this insane fear 

 was prodigious, for if he had no companion, he 

 would sit up by the kitchen fire all night, and 

 thus lose his next morning's work. We often 

 talked and reasoned with him, but to no pur- 

 pose. It was not that he was afraid of robbers, 

 for there were no such things. He was not 

 afraid of ghosts ; but it was simply an in- 

 describable terror of being by himself in the 

 dark, and I believe but for this terror, he 

 would have been the richest man in his dis- 

 trict — nay, more ; he was watcher over my 

 river at Saxay, and, in company with another, 

 would go out at night, and was really a very 

 fair watcher, for he understood the ways of fish, 

 and the ways of their enemies ; and though I 

 don't suppose he would have risked his bones 

 in a row, yet he counteracted poaching. 



Now when I instance Galium as an example 

 of night fear, it is not describing him alone. 



