58 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



allowed in a great measure to have things done as he 

 thought they ought to be done. 



About this time a highlandman came to the farm 

 asking for work. The laird, being himself a native 

 of the Highlands, inquired of the man what part of 

 the country he came from. It turned out to be the 

 very place to which the laird himself belonged, and 

 the man's name was McAlister, which was said to be 

 the real or at least the original name of the laird, who 

 had changed it to McAsland. The laird had had a 

 brother who left home when a young lad and had 

 never been heard of since. This he mentioned to the 

 highlandman, who noticed, and did all he could to 

 strengthen, the laird's obvious suspicion that he 

 might be this long-lost brother. He was at once 

 engaged, and much favoured. But work was not 

 Sandy's forte. He became a regular spy, conveying 

 tidings of his mates' doings to his master, with little 

 compunction regarding the truth. But he had not 

 the ability to hold the advantage he had won. It 

 was soon discovered that he was a confirmed and 

 unscrupulous liar, and unfaithful in the extreme to 

 his best friend, the laird. 



Sandy had told so many unlikely and impossible 

 stories that the household in general had ceased to 

 believe anything he said, unless it was known to be 

 correct on other grounds. Among other things, he 

 had often boasted how well he could play on the fiddle, 

 and that no one in the Highlands could match him 

 at the bagpipes, and that he possessed beautiful bag- 

 pipes, which he had left in Glasgow with his landlady. 



The laird had no knowledge of farming himself, and 



