CHAPTER 



DICICS FRIENDS FOSSILISING AND 

 MOSS-HUNTING. 



THE Thurso people surrounded Dick with a considerable 

 degree of mystery. But the mystery was very much of 

 their own making. They could not understand what 

 " the man " was about. What could he mean by walk- 

 ing to Morven and Dorery, and bringing home only a few 

 tufts of moss ? What could be the reason of his digging 

 with a pickaxe in old quarries, or pounding on the rocks 

 by the sea-shore with a smiddy forehammer ? Ordinary 

 people were grinding away for a living, working hard at 

 flagstones, or competing with each other for increased 

 trade, whereas the half-daft baker was wandering about 

 Caithness in his by-hours, gathering stones, ferns, and 

 grasses. The whole thing was a mystery ! 



The boys no longer dogged him about, as if he had 

 been the local idiot of the place. They rather kept out 

 of his way ; for people spoke of him as " uncanny," and 

 "a wee thocht wrang." When he came down the 

 middle of the street, on his way home from Dun net 

 Head or Banniskirk, they merely stood to one side, and 

 looked after him until he turned down Wilson's Lane. 

 He was often bedrabbled about his feet and trousers 



