CHRISTOPHER IN HIS SPORTING JACKET 



and some crown-cracks from the shillelas of the Con- 

 naught Rangers. 



Down comes a sudden thunder-plump, making the 

 road a river — and to the whifF o' Hghtning, all in 

 the shape of man, woman, and child, are under roof- 

 cover. The afternoon soon clears up, and the hay- 

 makers leave the clanking empty gill or half-mutch- 

 kin stoup, for the field, to see what the rain has done 

 — the forge begins again to roar — the sound of the 

 flying shuttle tells that the weaver is again on his 

 treddles; the tailor hoists up his little window in the 

 thatch, in that close confinement, to enjoy the caller 

 air — the tinklers go to encamp on the common — 

 "the air is balm^' — insects, dropping from eave and 

 tree, "show to the sun their waved coats dropt with 

 gold"" — though the season of bird-singing be over 

 and gone, there is a pleasant chirping hereabouts, 

 thereabouts, every where; the old blind beggar, dog- 

 led, goes from door to door, unconscious that such a 

 stramash has ever been — and dancing round our 

 champion, away we schoolboys all fly with him to 

 swim in the Brother Loch, taking our fishing-rods 

 with us, for one clap of thunder will not frighten the 

 trout; and about the middle or end of July, we have 

 known great labbers, twenty inches long, play wallop 

 between our very feet, in the warm shallow water, 

 within a yard of the edge, to the yellow-bodied, 

 [84] 



