128 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



did work night and day ; and I am bound to say that 

 we always did get the outfit on Yule e'en. 



Another invariable and important preparation for 

 Yule was the making of the football. Yule being always 

 the inauguration day of the season. The bladder of 

 the " mert " or pig, had been previously secured, care- 

 fully salted — very likely in an old brown teapot — and 

 set away in the most remote corner of a cupboard. 

 "We shaped and sewed the leather covering ourselves ; 

 but to get the " quarters " cut of the proper shape to 

 secure a perfect sphere, which we considered a matter 

 of the utmost importance, was an affair of great anxiety 

 and study. "We had certain rough rules for shaping 

 the pattern, but were not always successful in giving 

 it just the proper curve. The leather was not 

 obtained from the shops, for two reasons : it cost us 

 more than we could conveniently afford out of our 

 slender pocket-money ; and we found, or thought we 

 found, that " Scotch " shoe-leather — the only description 

 procurable in the shops — was very spongy and too 

 heavy : so the leather we used was native tanned — 

 and, indeed, our boots and shoes were for the most part 

 made of the same material. Some poor pony having 

 met with a tragic end — tumbled over a precipice, 

 or been murdered by a raven picking out its eyes, or 

 smothered in a peat-bog — the skin was handed to a 

 venerable fisherman, Magnus (or rather Mauns) Manson 

 by name, who was particularly skilful as a tanner in a 

 small way. The bark he used was the root of a small 

 yellow wild-flower, which grows plentifully on light 



