22 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE DRUID S ENDURANCE. 



THOUGHT at first that I 

 would walk all the way, but 

 it was a great mistake. It 

 may answer for a mere light- 

 hearted saunterer who wants to take a few 

 sketches, and his ease in his inn, but not for 

 one who has a responsible task in hand." 

 Such are some of the words contained in 

 ''The Druid's" preface to the volume of 

 " Field and Fern," devoted to the North of 

 Scotland, and it is easily intelligible that a 

 man of forty-three who had injured his con- 

 stitution by total inattention to regular meals, 

 and by walking vast distances in all weathers 

 on an empty stomach, should begin to find 

 out that to tramp thousands of miles carrying 

 his own baggage, was no longer within the 



