210 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



on the Byre balks aside us, for he never missed to 

 skirl every ten minutes thrae the time I lay doon ; 

 sae I was as often grapin' the hands o' my watch, 

 which I had gotten in a coup thrae Geordie 

 Matheson three weeks afore. 



"At last, when I had a gude guess it was 

 drawin' near to twal o'clock, and nae fear o' 

 breaking the Sabbath, I gat up and shook Sandy 

 by the shouther, who was out o' bed in a jiffie. 

 We went to the barn, and tied up twae prime 

 heather lights, thrae a bunch or twae, which I had 

 gae'd the miller lad dry on the kiln ten days afore. 

 They may talk o' ruffles and birk bark baith ; but 

 gie me a gude heather light, weel dried on the 

 kiln, for a throat o' the Queed. However, I got 

 the lights on my back, Sandie carried a weel dried 

 bairdie, and I took in my hand my clodding waster. 

 I had gi'en the Runchies o' Yarrowford seven 

 white shillings for her; but nane could make a 

 waster wi' the Hunches, 1 nor track an otter either ; 

 they had clean the best terriers in the hale country- 

 side ; and they had an art o' their ain in tempering 

 the taes o' a waster that they took to the grave wi' 

 them. I could hae thrawn mine off the head o' a 

 scaur ; and if she had stracken a whinstane rock she 

 wad hae been nae mair blunted than gif X had 

 thrawn her on a haystack. 



1 The Hunches (Runcimans) of Yarrowford were two celebrated 

 smiths, probably brought to Selkirkshire by Murray of Philiphaugh. 

 They were famous for a peculiar art in tempering edge tools. Their 

 otter hounds and terriers also were capital. Singular stories were told 

 of their sagacity. Rob Runchy, as a forlorn hope, once threw his 

 clodding leister at a drowning man floating down the Yarrow in a high 

 flood, and hauled him out with the lyams unharmed. 



