THE SECRET OF THE HIGH HILLS 217 
" All the world over the sons of the heather 
and the mist, in however distant or alien lands 
they may be, feel always, as they steer their way 
through life, tliat there is a pole-star by which 
they set their compass ; and that some day, 
perhaps, they or their children may steer the 
boat to a haven on some rocky shore, where the 
whaup calls shrilly on the moors above the loch, 
and the heather grows strong and tough on the 
hill-side, and the peat reek rises almost like the 
incense of an evening prayer against a grey, soft 
sky in the land of the north." ^ 
From tlie lone shieling on the misty island 
Mountains divide us, and a waste of seas. 
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is highland, 
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides. ^ 
IIow many a man at the end of July or the 
beginning of August, worn out with his work 
in Parliament, or the Law Courts, or elsewhere, 
turns his face and his thoughts to the North, and 
finds even in his anticipations and dreams of the 
days to come refreshment and solace ! In most 
things in this life the anticipation is far greater 
^ A Lame Dog's Diary, by S. Macnaughtan, pp. 239, 240 (John Murray, 
London, 1915). 
^ " Canadian Boat Song," St. Andrew's Treasxiry of Scottish Verse, 
by Mrs. Alexander Lawson and Alexander Lawson, pp. 133, 134 (A. & C. 
Black, Ltd., London, 1920). 
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