CHAP. xrr. DICK'S SOLITARY SERVICE. 157 



One Sunday morning Mr. Peaeh called in upon Dick, 

 having walked over from Castletown for the purpose.* 

 He found Dick reading the Bible, with Sharpe's transla- 

 tion of the New Testament from the Greek of Gries- 

 bach, and comparing one with the other. "Ah!" said 

 Dick, on seeing Mr. Peach coming in, " you never had 

 the Shorter Catechism knocked into your head as I had 

 during my youth." After further conversation, he said, 

 " After all the translations of the Bible that have been 

 made, there is none like the old translation. It has the 

 right ring about it. And then, it is so connected with 

 all the associations of our early home life." 



The people of Thurso, however, could never under- 

 stand Dick. They saw him going out at all times with 

 his hammer and chisels, and bringing home loads of 

 stones. What had he been doing ? Had he, like Hugh 

 Miller, been " seekin' siller in the stanes " ? or had he 

 been digging holes in the ground to bury the gold he 

 had made by his trade ?-f- In these respects the people 

 of Thurso were altogether at sea. 



Dick went on with his geological investigations. All 

 his treasures were sent to Hugh Miller. He kept dupli- 

 cates for himself, and by degrees collected a rich 

 repository of fossils. He stored them in his upper room, 

 where he also kept his best books. To help Hugh 



* One of Mr. Peach's duties at that time was to travel round the 

 coast in search of shipwrecks, and also to help the shipwrecked crews. 



t This statement was actually made by a Thurso person, now living 

 In London, who left the place long ago, before Dick had achieved anj 

 local reputation, except that of an eccentric character. 



