318 ANNIE MACK AY. CHAP. xix. 



ladies and gentlemen nothing but silks and parasols. 

 ' Jack's as good as his master,' and sometimes he thinks 

 himself a good deal better. A dreadful place for money- 

 gathering, all coupled with a tremendous thirst for ser- 

 mons and prayer-meetings. Notwithstanding this, we 

 have scraping and lying all the week through." 



None of this prosperity affected Dick. His business 

 was steadily falling off. And yet "the weary siller" 

 must be worked for. He was now getting old, and felt 

 himself unfitted for entering upon any new occupation. 

 He would have emigrated, but he had not the means. 

 Nor could he remove to any other place, for the same 

 reason. He was bound like a limpet to its rock. But 

 for his love of nature, it must have been a lonely life 

 that he led. He seems to have had few friends to 

 whom he could communicate his joys or his sorrows. 

 At least he never mentions them in his letters to his 

 sister, in which he mentioned all that he knew, and all 

 that he was doing. The principal person about him 

 was his old housekeeper, Annie Mackay, whose half- 

 Highland, half-Scotch conversations, he sometimes men- 

 tions to his sister. Here, for instance, is a specimen : 



"Och hane! I'm thinkin' it's yeersel that's in the star- 

 vation countrie, wi' yeer eggs at saxteen pence the dizzen, 

 and yeer coos' butter at twenty pence the new pund ! 

 Och a nee, the like o' that's a farlie ! Fat gars ye 

 spike that waa, and consither a firlot little when she's 

 muckle ? Eh-a ? I dinna see yeer mistaaks, and hoo 

 ye read yeer paper upside doun. Fan yeer wark is 

 cleen, ye gang oot by an' kill yeersel and no be sorrin 



