IV 
OVER THE BORDER 
HE enterprising Englishman penetrates 
| into many lands, and by reason of much 
travel he may come to regard them all 
more or less as a matter of course. Let 
him, however, for the first time cross the Border 
into Scotland, and if it be daylight I warrant he 
will sit up and be pleased to take notice. The 
Scots have a very beautiful country. They have, 
moreover, a character which perhaps owes some- 
thing to that possession. They have attracted 
attention, commanded respect, the wide world 
over. They are the same abroad—thousands of 
miles away—as at home. What more refreshing, 
when conversation is of the Old Country in, say, 
an overseas mining community, than to hear 
about the “ pur-r-ple heather-r” in the good-Scots 
tongue. How happily the accent clings! They 
are a wonderful people, these Scots. There is no 
room for argument. That they are the salt of the 
earth even themselves agree! Who says they 
haven’t humour? That libeller cannot have 
visited them in their native heath. They are a 
serious folk, but, when they have a mind to 
E 
