A SCOTCH MIST. 131 



red flushing of the morning was ominous, and, if I must 

 speak the truth, it put him into that state of mind which 

 the world have combined to call most abominably disa- 

 greeable. As he strode up Ben Derig nothing went right. 

 " Davy, you are always striking the dogs with the spare 

 ramrod. How the deuce can you be so awkward ? There 

 now, don't pull them along in that manner ; they will be 

 weary before they get half way up the mountain. Jamieson, 

 I dare say you have left the water-proof rifle-cases at home." 



" No, I have them all with me." 



" Well, I did you wrong to suppose so, for I never knew 

 you to forget any thing of consequence." 



" What the de'il maks the maister so crabbed the day ? " 



" Crabbed, aye, and reason eneuch. The mists are rising 

 heavier and heavier in the haugh ; and though Ben Derig 

 shimmers now, won't he be all mirk afore we can win f orrat 

 to our cast ? " 



And scarcely had they gained this destined point, before 

 a great volume of mist came sailing over the lower grounds, 

 and jostled against the huge shoulder of Ben-y-chait ; then, 

 breaking and spreading widely abroad, all around at once 

 became dim and dubious. This was the beginning of the 

 evil ; but worse remained behind. Cloud after cloud came 

 driving along, till the whole face of nature, mountain, rock, 

 and glen, was smothered in the reeking vapour. 



Scarcely may you discern your neighbour sitting upon 

 the dripping heather beside you. These clouds of mist are 

 sure to last some hours, or may continue the whole morning, 

 and finally terminate in a deluge of everlasting rain. Some- 

 times, indeed, they would clear away pretty suddenly, but 

 more often would they rise gradually. None but those 

 who know the joys of deer stalking can tell with what an 

 intent gaze the rifleman's eyes were fixed upon the space 

 below him. At times the heather grew evidently clearer ; 

 then it was distinctly seen, and his hopes began to rise. 

 The gleam was brief and delusive : again and again the 

 huge volumes came breaking on the hill tops, and all was 

 more sullen than ever. As for patient resignation, no 

 sportsman knows what it means ; he might possibly have 

 read of such a thing, as Magnus Troil had of the nightingale, 



