4io A Walk from 



own door and sit at the head of his own table. This 

 happy and ingenious plan restored good feeling and 

 a pleasant footing to the sensitive families and gave 

 to the good Dutchman's name an interest which it 

 will carry with it forever. 



After filling my pockets with some beautiful, little 

 shells strewing the site of the building called "John 

 O'Groat's buckies," I returned to the inn. One of 

 the gentlemen who accompanied me was the tenant 

 of the farm which must have been John's homestead, 

 containing about two hundred acres. It was mostly 

 in oats, still standing, with a good promise of forty 

 bushels to the acre. He resided at Thurso, some 

 twenty miles distant, and found no difficulty in carry- 

 ing on the estate through a hired foreman. I never 

 passed a more enjoyable evening than in the little, cosy, 

 low-jointed parlor of this sea-side inn. Scotch cakes 

 never had such a relish for me nor a peat-fire more 

 comfortable fellowship of pleasant fancies as I sat at 

 the tea-table. There was a moaning of winds down 

 the Pentland Firth a clattering and chattering of 

 window shutters, as if the unrestful spirits of the old 

 Vikings and Norse heroes were walking up and down 

 the scene of their wild histories and gibbering over 

 their feats and fates. Spent an hour or two in writing 

 letters to friends in England and America to tell them 



