MEMOIR 



Summer 

 in Styria. 



black scarts that sat like ornaments on the top of every stack 

 and pinnacle, looking down into the Purgle as she passed. The 

 climate of Scotland had not done with them yet : for three days 

 they lay storm-stayed in Poolewe, and when they put to sea on 

 the morning of the fourth, the sailors prayed them for God's sake 

 not to attempt the passage. Their setting out was indeed merely 

 tentative ; but presently they had gone too far to return, and 

 found themselves committed to double Rhu Reay with a foul 

 wind and a cross sea. From half-past eleven in the morning 

 until half-past five at night, they were in immediate and un- 

 ceasing danger. Upon the least mishap, the Purgle must either 

 have been swamped by the seas or bulged upon the cliffs of that 

 rude headland. Fleeming and Robertson took turns baling 

 and steering ; Mrs. Jenkin, so violent was the commotion of the 

 boat, held on with both hands ; Frewen, by Robertson's direc- 

 tion, ran the engine, slacking and pressing her to meet the seas ; 

 and Bernard, only twelve years old, deadly sea-sick, and con- 

 tinually thrown against the boiler, so that he was found next day 

 to be covered with burns, yet kept an even fire. It was a very 

 thankful party that sat down that evening to meat in the Hotel at 

 Gairloch. And perhaps, although the thing was new in the family, 

 no one was much surprised when Fleeming said grace over that 

 meal. Thenceforward he continued to observe the form, so that 

 there was kept alive in his house a grateful memory of peril and 

 deliverance. But there was nothing of the muff in Fleeming ; 

 he thought it a good thing to escape death, but a becoming and 

 a healthful thing to run the risk of it ; and what is rarer, that 

 which he thought for himself, he thought for his family also. 

 In spite of the terrors of Rhu Reay, the cruise was persevered 

 in and brought to an end under happier conditions. 



One year, instead of the Highlands, Alt Aussee, in the Steier- 

 mark, was chosen for the holidays ; and the place, the people, 

 and the life delighted Fleeming. He worked hard at German, 

 which he had much forgotten since he was a boy ; and what is 

 highly characteristic, equally hard at the patois, in which he 

 learned to excel. He won a prize at a Schutzen-fest ; and 

 though he hunted chamois without much success, brought down 



