44 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OR, 



give variety to the mainland ; and, on the other, the various- 

 ly-complexioned Hebrides, from the Isle of Skye to Uist and 

 Barra, and from Uist and Barra to Tiree and Mull. The 

 contiguous Small Isles, Muck and Hum, lay moored imme- 

 diately beside us, like vessels of the same convoy that in some 

 secure roadstead drop anchor within hail of each other. I 

 could willingly have lingered on the top of the Scuir until 

 after sunset ; but the minister, who ever and anon, during 

 the day, had been conning over some notes jotted on a paper 

 of wonderfully scant dimensions, reminded me that this was 

 the evening of his week-day discourse, and that we were more 

 than a particularly rough mile from the place of meeting, and 

 within half an hour of the time. I took one last look of 

 the scene ere we commenced our descent. There, in the 

 middle of the ample parish glebe, that looked richer and 

 greener in the light of the declining sun than at any former 

 period during the day, rose the snug parish manse; and 

 yonder, in an open island channel, with a strip of dark 

 rocks fringing the land within, and another dark strip fring- 

 ing the barren Eilean Chaisteil outside, lay the Betsey, look- 

 ing wonderfully diminutive, but evidently a little thing of 

 high spirit, tant-masted, with a smart rake aft, and a spruce 

 outrigger astern, and flaunting her triangular flag of blue in 

 the sun. I pointed first to the manse, and then to the yacht. 

 The minister shook his head. 



" 'Tis a time of strange changes," he said : " I thought to 

 have lived and died in that house, and found a quiet grave in 

 the burying-ground yonder beside the ruin ; but my path was 

 a clear though a rugged one ; and from almost the moment 

 that it opened up to me, I saw what I had to expect. It 

 has been said that I might have lain by here in this out-of- 

 the-way corner, and suffered the Church question to run its 

 course, without quitting my hold of the Establishment. And 

 so I perhaps might. It is easy securing one's own safety, in 



