48 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OR, 



immediately on the Disruption, in miserably bad condition, 

 at a loss of nearly fifty per cent. He had a few sheep, how- 

 ever, that would not sell at all, and that remained on the 

 glebe in consequence, until his successor entered into posses- 

 sion. And he, honest man, straightway impounded them, 

 and got them incarcerated in a dark, dirty hole, somewhat in 

 the way Giant Despair incarcerated the pilgrims, a thing 

 he had quite a legal right to do, seeing that the mile-long 

 glebe, with its many acres of luxuriant pasture, was now as 

 much his property as it had been Mr Swanson's a few months 

 before, and seeing Mr Swanson's few sheep had no right to 

 crop his grass. But a worthy neighbour interfered, Mr 

 M 'Donald of Keil, the principal tenant in the island. Mr 

 M'Donald, a practical commentator on the law of kindness, 

 was sorely scandalized by what he deemed the new minis- 

 ter's gratuitous unkindness to a brother in calamity ; and, re- 

 lieving the sheep, he brought them to his own farm, where he 

 found them board and lodging on my friend's behalf, till they 

 could be used up at leisure. And it was one of the last of 

 this, unfortunate lot that now contrived to escape from us by 

 anticipating John Stewart " A black beginning makes a 

 black ending," said Goufnng Jock, an ancient border shep- 

 herd, when his only sheep, a black ''ewe, the sole survivor of 

 a flock smothered in a snow-storm, was worried to death by 

 his dogs. Then, taking down his broad sword, he added, 

 " Come awa, my auld friend ; thou and I maun e'en stock 

 Bowerhope-Law ance mair ! " Less warlike than Gouffing 

 Jock, we were content to repeat over the dead, on this occa- 

 sion, simply the first portion of his speech ; and then, betak- 

 ing ourselves to our cabin, we forgot all our sorrows over 

 our tea, 



