ANDY COTTER. 



CHAPTER II. 



ANDY COTTER. 



IN order to traverse the wilderness of Monar- 

 rogue, the assistance of Andy Cotter is abso- 

 lutely requisite. A fair portion of this profit- 

 able estate is under water for three months in 

 the year ; the rest is composed of heather and 

 stones, with small intervals of cultivated fields 

 in which turnips are occasionally visible to the 

 naked eye. Mr. Cotter is tenant for as much 

 almost of this earthly paradise as you can see. 

 Where the hill of Knocknagow sleeps in the 

 shape of a couched mastiff against the sky- 

 line, Andy has erected a sort of cairn of granite 

 to mark the boundary of his farm, and on the 

 slope of Knocknagow itself the family mansion 

 of the Cotters shrinks within an enclosure of 

 stunted firs. From the vale below rises a dank 

 perpetual mist, through which you may catch 

 a glimpse of one or two of the five lean kine 

 possessed by Andy roaming emptily about 

 in search of the rations which serve to keep 

 them at starvation point. You need not fear 



