322 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



some slight show of reluctance, she had undertaken — 

 were snugly and comfortably ensconced in the stern- 

 sheets amongst abundance of straw ; and amid the 

 ringing cheers and good wishes of a crowd of friends 

 and neighbours, who gathered on the beach to. see them 

 off, they set sail for Lerwick. The voyage was 

 prosperous, and in ten days the party returned. 

 Immediately thereafter, preparations and arrangements 

 for the wedding commenced. Osla's father was the 

 younger son of a small udaller, and was not a little 

 proud of it. He was also a thoroughgoing and uncom- 

 promising conservative, and a great stickler for all the 

 old customs which had come down from his Scandi- 

 navian forebears. He was determined, therefore, that 

 on this auspicious occasion everything should be 

 conducted in what he regarded as strictly proper form. 

 "My bairn," said he, "is a guid lass and a bonny, 

 and nane shall hae it to say her wedding was a puir 

 or shabby ane. She is marry in' a lad worthy o' her ; 

 an' it's no me that'll hand back frae' shawin' a' kind- 

 ness and honour to my dochter and the man that saved 

 my life." 



The reader will understand, therefore, that what 

 follows is the description of a Shetland wedding as it 

 used to be kept half a century ago amongst well-to-do 

 fishermen. 



