226 THE SCOTCH LAIRD AND THE PEBBLES. 



as the place where in one day each season a suffi- 

 cient supply had been collected, during the time that 

 the stones had been in fashion. The owner of the 

 mine of so much beauty, and as it appeared to him, 

 from the price that he had paid, of so much wealth, 

 would have been glad to exchange his purchase for ' 

 something that he could not get at home ; but still he 

 was pleased that the mine was his freehold. Home 

 he returned ; the present from London was duly seen 

 and admired ; and the very next morning, taking his 

 mole-staff with him as a divining rod, he was early 

 at his rhabdomancy. Three days he consumed in 

 diligent and laborious search, keeping the secret of 

 his wealth with great care, until he should astonish 

 the world with its amount. In the course of his 

 labour he picked up many stones, but, as they were 

 all very rough and unpromising to look at, he cast 

 away as fast as he gathered, till the third day and 

 his patience were nearly at a close together. When 

 he had nearly reached his home, he took up one of 

 those nodules of which he had previously taken up 

 and thrown down so many, and dashed it upon the 

 rock with all his force, as if in vengeance for the 

 deception which he had practised on himself. The 

 stone broke in pieces, and in the fractures he found 

 the colours, but not the lustre, of those disks which 

 had so pleased him in London. He soon began 

 to reflect that his uncut pebbles were not saleable 

 trinkets, any more than the soil of his farm was 

 saleable quarters of wheat ; so he prudently resolved 

 to follow his farming, and leave the pebbles to the 

 lapidary as before. The purchase, too, retained its 

 value, as the pebbles that were collected from the 

 fields as an encumbrance, and used in paving the 

 court and filling drains, could not rival it ; and 

 he even boasted that the trinkets were the produce 

 of his own estate, and spoke with admiration of the 

 art and skill of the Londoners, who could make a 

 few ounces of that which was not worth sixpence 



