BOYHOOD. \J 



thraldom. If the mist had remained, that would have been nothing ; 

 only a still cold wet seat on a stone ; but as ' a trot becomes a gallop 

 soon, in spite of curb and rein,' so a Scotch mist becomes a shower 

 — and a shower a flood — and a flood a storm — and a storm a tem- 

 pest — and a tempest thunder and lightning — and thunder and light- 

 ning heavenquake and earthquake — till the heart of poor wee Kit 

 quaked, and almost died within him in the desert. In this age of 

 Confessions, need we be ashamed to own, in the face of the whole 

 world, that we sat us down and cried! The small brown moorland 

 bird, as dry as a toast, hopped out of his heather-hole, and cheerfully 

 cheeped comfort. With crest just a thought lowered by the rain 

 the green-backed, white-breasted peaseweep, walked close by us in 

 the mist ; and, sight of wonder, that made even in that quandary by 

 the quagmire our heart beat with joy — lo ! never seen before, and 

 seldom since, three wee peaseweeps, not three days old, little bigger 

 than shrew-mice, all covered with blackish down, interspersed with 

 long white hair, running after their mother ! But the large hazel eye 

 of the she peaseweep, restless even in the most utter solitude, soon 

 spied us glowering at her, and her young ones, through our tears ; 

 and not for a moment doubting (Heaven forgive her for the shrewd 

 but cruel suspicion !) that we were Lord Eglinton's gamekeeper, 

 with a sudden shrill cry that thrilled to the marrow in our cold 

 backbone, flapped and fluttered herself away into the mist, while 

 the little black bits of down disappeared, like devils, into the moss. 

 The croaking of the frogs grew terrible. And worse and worse, 

 close at hand, seeking his lost cows through the mist, the bellow of 

 the notorious red bull! We began saying our prayers; and just 

 then the sun forced himself out into the open day, and, like the sud- 

 den opening of the shutters of a room, the whole world was filled 

 with light. The frogs seemed to sink among the powheads ; as for 

 the red bull who had tossed the tinker, he was cantering away, with 

 his tail towards us, to a lot of cows on the hill ; and hark — a long, 

 a loud, an oft-repeated halloo! Rab Roger, honest fellow, and 

 Leezy Muir, honest lass, from the manse, in search of our dead 

 body ! Rab pulls our ears lightly, and Leezy kisses us from the 

 one to the other, wrings the rain out of our long yellow hair (a 

 pretty contrast to the small gray sprig now on the crown of our 

 pericranium, and the thin tail acock behind) ; and by-and-by step- 

 ping into Hazel-Deanhead for a drap and a ' chitterin' piece,' by the 

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