124 The Naturalist of Cimbrae. 



"In the mids o' the firry-farry, a man bald out 

 o'er the bed-head,* an rattled a girdle, an telt us we 

 war to gang an' see anither sicht butt f the house. 

 An' awa we crooded butt the house, up a stair, whare 

 we got stools tae sit on. They darkened the room, 

 an' lichted pictures on the wa', o' houses in London ; 

 but the queer thing was how the pictures changed 

 creeping out of the ae thing intae anither ; turnin' 

 kirks intae castles, an' trees intae boats. But, mither, 

 the fleesomest thing was at last ; an' I'll think till the 

 day that I dee that they put us asleep, an' set us a* 

 dreamin', for it cou'd be naething else. An' then 

 we thocht that w' saw a big fiery wheel on the wa', 

 an' how it trinted, and rumpled inwards an' outwards, 

 an' upwards, an' downwards, an' backwards, an' 

 forwards ; it stoppit, an' startled, an' freckled, an' 

 sparkled an' preserve us, I thocht whiles that it wad 

 be owre the tap o' us a' thegither ; an', bless me, 

 mither, had they no' waukened us firin' gun-cotton, 

 I'm shure it wad hae turned out the nichtmare. But 

 as shoon as I got out at the door, I ne'er luk'd owre 

 ma shouther tae I was on the fair road for Lesmahago." 



The above will give some idea of the lowland 

 Scotch dialect, with which in early years Mr. Robert- 

 son himself had been familiar. It also faithfully 

 indicates the simplicity of mind with which a girl out 

 of the country districts would in those days have been 

 brought face to face for the first time with the 

 wonders and amusements of the town. 



* The clerk's box suggests to her mind the box-bed of the moorland 

 farmhouse. 



t " Butt " and " ben " are equivalent to " out " and "in," or "out 

 of" and " into" respectively. 



