104 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



the halfpence. In this world men do not help those 

 whom they feel their equals in courage, strength of 

 mind, judgment. That would never do ; hut the fawn- 

 ing sycophant, who makes his patron believe that he is 

 unworthy to lick the dust off his shoes, to him will be 

 extended the hand of assistance, because, forsooth, he is 

 so humble and meek. Here is the difference : the one 

 will oppose you openly as a man, hand to hand or tooth 

 to tooth, while the other will bite you in the back with 

 the venom of certain destruction. It always makes 

 me savage when I meet the finest, most open-hearted 

 specimens of our race driven to colonies or foreign 

 lands, to eke out a scanty subsistence, and ultimately 

 pass off the face of the earth, while the cunning 

 hypocrite fattens and waxes rich at home. 



My friend of last night wished me to join him, for 

 he travels the same route for three hundred miles ; but 

 he is pressed for time, and consequently makes forced 

 marches. I am not; and, even if I wished, dare not 

 hurry my cattle. 



At sunrise I crossed the ferry, and at first traversed 

 a very pretty country, afterwards a most dismal one. Who 

 knows the stretch of old Scotland that extends from 

 Seutra Hill, beyond Blackshiels, as you go to the town 

 where is reported to have lived bonnie Maggie Lauder ? 

 After you have got a mile or two over the ridge, halt, 

 and look to all the airts of the wind moor in front, moor 

 behind, and moor to right and left. Such is the land 

 through which we are now passing. At length I arrive 

 opposite a tavern, with " hot meals " announced in the 

 window. 



Can it be possible in such a place as this ? I cast 

 my eyes up, and see over the door a gorgeous painting 



