, AT BUCKIE. 331 



iricht, an' I'm thankfu' for a' the mercies I has gotten. Thank 

 ye, mem j thenk ye, mem ; but eh, they're cheap at tenpence. 

 Gude day, mem." 



As I have indicated, Jean prospered in her own way. In 

 the early days of her widowhood, she was up with the lark, she 

 washed for some of her neighbours, she gathered bait, she knitted 

 netSj and nets in those days were made at home of home-spun 

 twine. She also made and mended for the bairns. Meantime 

 her son became an apt scholar, being quick at arithmetic and 

 apt at such learning as was taught by Dominie Brewster in the 

 school of Shellbraes. When the boy reached the age of eleven, 

 he went out in his uncle's boat to the herring, and the season 

 being a productive one, he earned no less than six pounds as his 

 share of the venture. At that time most of the herring boats 

 of Shellbraes were managed on the sharing system, or by " the 

 deal," as it was called. When but a lad, John Oowie went 

 two voyages to the whale fishery, and again earned quite a large 

 sum of money, as his mother said everything he put his hand to 

 was blessed. By and by he became the half proprietor of a her- 

 ring boat, along with one of his cousins, and so, little by little, 

 his prosperity increased till he became the owner of no less than 

 three fishing-boats, after which he started in business as a curer, 

 and found his industry rewarded with stiU greater success. 



Eesuming our tour, I may hint to the reader that it is well 

 worth while, by way of variety, to see the fishing population of 

 the various towns on the Moray Firth. Taking the south side 

 as the best point of advantage, it may be safely said that from 

 Gamrie to Portgordon there may be found many studies of 

 character, and bits of land, or rather sea scape, that cannot be 

 found anywhere else. Portsoy, Oullen, Portessie, Buckie, Port- 

 gordon, are every one of them places where aU the specialties 

 of fisher life may be studied. Buckie, from its size, may be 

 named as a kind of metropolis among these ports ; and it differs 

 from some of them inasmuch as it contains, in addition to its 

 fisher-folk, a mercantile population as weU. The town is 

 divided and subdivided by means of its natural situation. There 

 is Buckie-east-the-bum, New Buckie, Nether Buckie, Buckie- 

 below-the-brae, Buckie-aboon-the-brae, and, of course, Buckie- 

 west-the-burn. A curious system of "nicknames" prevails 

 among the fisher-people, and most notably among those on the 

 Moray Firth, and in some of the Scottish weaving villages as 

 well. In all communications with the people they: "to" 



