THE CHIEF TEMPTS ME. 15 



Upon the platforms of the frequent little stations the natives flocked 

 in their Inverness capes or sturdy Scotch tweeds, with thick stockings 

 of wool and low shoes, disdaining umbrellas and regardless of the 

 rain, with here and there women of their kind under hoods and 

 shawls and long hanging capes, and an occasional unmistakable English- 

 man, though these last for the most part were clad much as the 

 Scotch. 



It gave the proper human atmosphere to the places. It was all like 

 coming to a well-remembered land, after a long absence, and yet 

 there was in it the spice of the new ; the possibilities of the unexpected 

 lurked everywhere. 



The train was a very slow one, but though I was in a hurry to 

 arrive I did not seem to care for that, I was so much engrossed in 

 all I saw, so keenly alive. 



I saw parties of sportsmen, guns under arms, dogs at heel, in the 

 turnip patches, and I wondered what they sought. Later I knew they 

 were walking up partridges. I did it myself upon occasion, as I shall 

 shortly say. I saw hills, rock-ribbed, bare, that frowned down upon 

 the right of way as do our own mountains in the Rockies or Cascades. 



I saw moss-grown, ivy-swathed, squat, low cottages, with thatches 

 carefully bound ; I saw conical ricks of oat straw, each capped with an 

 individual thatch, carefully guyed down by ropes spread as are those 

 which hold a circus tent. I saw sheep, and cattle and horses; more 

 sheep than all. I saw little brown ponies between the shafts of two- 

 wheeled carts. I saw farm carts, with a big brown single horse 

 drawing them, a sturdy man and woman to the right and left walking 

 by the animal's head. 



I saw tow-headed children gazing with familiar interest at the 

 going train. On, and over all, where the waters of the Firth lapped 

 close to the ends of the sleepers, I saw a flock of ducks rise and 

 circle and fly away. 



I saw battleships and cruisers and torpedo boats of the British 

 Navy, gray and sullen and threatening, lying at anchor in Cromarty 

 Firth, which I had thought too small for any such warcraft, but it 

 was large beyond their use. 



Climbing, still climbing, we came a little after noon to Lairg, and 

 I stepped down upon the graveled platform and went forward to see 



