OCTOBER 239 



other chronicles of a similarly strange 

 kind, gathered during the few years which 

 have been mentioned, it would be possible 

 to set down ; but, though they came 

 hastily to memory as I gazed at the 

 quaint house on the Earn, I need not 

 narrate them. I will only say that it 

 is hardly possible for any one, howsoever 

 well endowed with the critical hard- 

 headedness that comes from moving 

 about in the most worldly society, in 

 London or elsewhere, to dwell in the 

 Highlands without soon beginning to be 

 doubtful as to whether all " superstitions " 

 are so superstitious as at first they 

 seem. 



" But the Greenkeeper to a Golf Club 

 possessed of the Evil Eye ! O John, that 

 is too steep ! " I said this to myself after 

 pondering for a few moments ; and then 

 I said as much to the gillie. 



" Weel, Sir," said John, doggedly, 

 " though what I ha'e telFt ye may soond 

 rideecilous, it's what a' the folks hereaboot 

 believe. Peter's no' canny." 



