AN ABSOLUTE PROPRIETOR. 313 



Whether the old woman regarded me as an 

 eligible suitor for the hand of her daughter I 

 know not; but be this as it may, the old lady 

 fell greatly in love with me, and I was afraid 

 lest she might want to kiss me before she left 

 the ship in a little bay running into the rugged 

 sides of Rum. Anyway, I breathed more freely 

 when she was seated in the boat along with her 

 daughter waving tender farewells to me with a 

 white handkerchief as the distance grew greater 

 between us. 



When we reached a famous bird -island a 

 little farther to the north, we found the proprietor 

 on it collecting his rents from the crofters. This 

 was an unfortunate thing for us, for in addition 

 to an eccentric notion as to the absoluteness of a 

 man's sway over what he owns, the old gentleman 

 had been shamefully duped by some professional 

 egg- collector not long before the date of our 

 visit. We presented our credentials, but he only 

 laughed at us, and regarded us as a couple of 

 fools for coming so far for photographs of birds' 

 nests in situ when we might have gone to South 

 Kensington Natural History Museum and got 

 pictures of " nests, eggs, old birds and all." 



I wheedled and coaxed, but to no purpose; he 

 absolutely declined to allow us to take a single 

 photograph on the barren, dreary looking place. 

 I will give him his due, however ; he was quite 

 affable, and when he found out that I knew 

 something about sheep, he chatted freely about 

 the price of wethers and other ovine matters, as 

 we sat together in the sunshine on a little garden - 

 seat in front of the hotel at which we were 

 staying. Presently he closed his eyes and dozed 

 off to sleep, his fine old head bobbing back and 



