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CHAPTER X. 



A FEW HINTS TO FORESTEES ; ANECDOTES OF THEIR 

 GENTLEMEN CONCLUSION. 



WHEREVER it has been my lot to go stalking, I have 

 always found the Scotch forester one of nature* s gentle- 

 men. The genuine Highlander has a rooted belief in 

 ghosts and " double goers : " in caverns and pools in 

 which the devil dwells, and though bold as a lion by 

 daylight, nothing would induce him to pass such places 

 after dark. Well do I remember an old forester telling 

 me with bated breath, how one day at a deer drive, 

 he and a friend, early in the morning, but long after 

 sunrise, both saw the forester of an adjoining ground 

 approaching them ; each knew him well, and thinking 

 he had come to lend a hand at the sport, each hailed 

 him with a shout of welcome : their friend continued to 

 advance until quite close on them, when he suddenly 

 vanished ! Strange to say, this story did not wind up 

 with the fact that the man whose apparition had been 

 seen, had died at the very moment of his appearance 

 to his friends. "He was just fretting to be wi' us," 

 was my old friend's explanation ; one which appeared 

 natural and satisfactory to him, and in the usual order 



