300 THE OLD MAN'S SONG: CHAP. xvin. 



buried forest." Yet Mr. Peach held that he was right. 

 And Dick also worked hard to get at the right meaning 

 of things. 



On one occasion he writes to Peach as follows : " A 

 few days since I found myself standing by the sea- 

 shore on the east side of Dunnet Head. I was scanning 

 with delighted soul the overturned strata, and musing 

 on the Past, on the Beginning, on Eternity ! 



" I am again bothered with rheumatism, and neither 

 an enthusiastic love of stones nor fossils can delude me 

 into the belief that pain is an illusion, and not a stern 

 reality intended no doubt for good, and yet I had as 

 lief be without it 



" ' Oh ! age has weary days 



An' nights o' sleepless pain ; 

 The gowden time o' youthful prime 

 Can never come again ! ' 



That's the old man's song, Charlie. But it is all owing 

 to temperament or constitution, or to stamina at the 

 outset. 



" I felt considerable chagrin when you returned from 

 the West, and brought no root of Scolopendrium with 

 you. I did not want it for myself, but for science and 

 Nature. I wished to plant it on Dunnet cliffs, or on the 

 slate hills to the south of Thurso. I know favourable 

 spots where I think it would live, and gratify the weary 

 souls of lonely pilgrims, long after you and I are singing 

 hallelujah with the angels. If you don't send that 

 Scolopendrium, your monument in the North will have 

 no garland hung around it." 



