HILLMEN. 
293 
sional visits from my hillside neighbours (who 
are, I suspect, the thieves ; for they could note 
the position of things in the day-time, and 
readily lift them at night). They ply me with 
questions about master, inquiring when he is 
coming back, to which I always make the same 
reply : “ Soon ; he has only gone over the hill. " 
But they have found me out ! Sometimes the 
mountain-men choose my verandah as their rest- 
ing-place for the night, instead of going to the 
old womans hut, as was their wont. But they 
are always off by dawn, to be in Billy early with 
tlieir loads of potatoes for the market. They are 
quite harmless, and I have no fear of them ; but 
they have an insufferable odour, and they are 
undoubtedly fearsome - looking creatures. A 
stranger group than that stretched in deep sleep 
around me last night, as I, sleepless, whiled 
away a part of the dreary time in studying them 
both in attitude and physiognomy by the bril- 
liant moonlight, it would be difficult to imagine. 
