AMONGST THE HEATHER. 53 



yards a bluebell full of dew appears. Stagshorn moss crawls 

 between the tufts over large grey stones, which sometimes 

 occur in heaps, and these again intensify themselves into cairns 

 on the top of each mound. Vegetation is brighter in the marsh 

 below, where grass of Parnassus, red rattles, and the like, yet 

 survive to mourn Summer. No small birds are in sight, but 

 blackcocks are heard crowing on the hill-side to the left, and 

 the sound harmonises well with the dreary landscape. 



As the sportsmen emerge they meet a funeral entering : the 

 shepherd has been brought down from the hill-side shieling to 

 his last quiet resting-place. Reflecting how the same lot awaits 

 monarch and slave omnes eodem cogimur the young men 

 reverently take off their hats, and watch the minister with the 

 Itttle train of mourners silently enter the yard. The shepherd, 

 wont to rest in the shieling, its roof heaped up with peat and 

 heather, will now sleep "until the day break and the shadows 

 flee away," under the same familiar covering. The Englishmen 

 miss the consolatory sentences of their own Burial Service, but 

 the hard-featured Scotch faces before them are composed to a 

 stern resignation. The minister has told them ere they started 

 that they too have their life-work to perform faithfully, and the 

 sense of being unprofitable servants is now being borne into 

 their souls, as it only is on such occasions. Women as a rule 

 do not accompany funerals in Scotland, and the widow sits 

 by the turf fire in the shieling, rocking herself to and fro and 

 ** crooning " the while. The body is lowered, and the rich 

 black earth heaped over it, and all turn to go : Donald, "puir 

 beastie," his master's collie, lingers with downcast tail and ears, 

 but is sternly whistled off. The men shake their heads and set 

 their lips tighter as they retire, while one of the Englishmen, 

 who is probably a poet in his small way, and 



" Hath among least things 

 An under-sense of greatest " 



plucks a twig of heather from the neighbouring hillock, and 



