216 DAYS OF DEEB-STALKING. 



"Eh! what where when? comest thou to draw 

 Priam's curtains in the dead of night ?" 



"Night! now by him who sits on high Olympus, 



' Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund morn 

 Sits tiptoe on the misty mountain's top.' 



There are twenty harts cropping the heather bells on the 

 Red Mountain, just above the lodge. 



' Falsely luxurious, will not man awake ? ' ' 



" Oh, as for that, you see, I'm quite alive ; yaw yaw ! 

 confoundedly stiff though : I do not think that arque- 

 busade of yours is genuine. But you'll give me time to put 

 on iny clothes, won't you ? and although you dispense with 

 sleep, I pray you not to dispense with breakfast. I always 

 eat before I go out ; my father and mother did so before me. 

 Now here I am, you see, fresh as a lark ; just give me a 

 helping hand will you, my good friend ? Thank you : now 

 then, on goes my best jacket ; for this day I mean to do 'a 

 deed of mighty note.' " 



"Bravo! up with you, then, my good fellow, quanto primd. 

 In the meantime, I will go out and examine the three harts." 

 " Three ! THREE harts ! why, thou said'st twenty ere 

 now ! " 



" Aye, in buckram : twenty deer, you know, will rouse 

 your somnolent man sooner than three : there is a great 

 charm in numbers." 



Tortoise clapped on his bonnet, and marched forth with 

 his telescope, all unclad as he was, save in slippers and 

 dressing-gown. The harts were perused, and found pro- 

 digious, of course. A brief toilette a breakfast short, 

 sharp, and decisive, and perhaps a cauker, as the Ettrick 

 Shepherd has it. 



All now were ready and about to start, when a hill-man 

 came panting in with a letter from the Duke of Atholl con- 

 taining instructions for Tortoise to bring down as many 

 deer as he could, and to be at the Green Knowes at three 

 o'clock, mentioning where he and his parties would be 

 posted, and saying that his men would keep them in on the 

 west after they had passed a certain point. In the mean- 

 time, Tortoise and his friend were to kill what they could. 



