Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush

their clothes for summer or winter, Drumsheugh and one or two of the larger farmers condescending to a topcoat on Sabbath, as a penalty of their position, and without regard to temperature. They wor

ss till each man had a cascade from the tail of his coat, and hazarded the suggestion, halfway to Kildrummie,

table for the effeminacy of towns, but not seriously intended for Drumtochty. Sandy Stewart "napped" stones on the road in his shirt sleeves, wet or fair, summer and winter, till he was persuaded to retire from active duty at eighty-five, and he spent ten years more in regetting his hastiness and criticising his successor. The ordinary course of life, with fine air and contented minds, wa

slip awa" at sixty, that worthy man was scandalized,

ir trial tae us a'. A' never heard tell o' sic a thing

w a bush; but that's neither here nor there. A'm thinkin' he sappit his constitution thae twa years he wes

ntly to Hillocks' apologi

. Losh keep's, we've a' sleepit o

nie stravagin' yon wy frae place tae place, but Drums neve

ent with a potato-digging machine, which turned out a lamentable failure, a

n had time to form; "an' there were waur fouk than

ce. Hillocks was sitting in the Post Office one afternoon when I looked in for my letters, and the right side of his face was blazing r

aboot ma face, and a'm fair deaved (deafened), so a'm watchin'

n sight, and stated the result with that admir

ae be in the hoose? Gae hame wi' ye afore a' leave the bit, and send a haflin for some medicine. Ye donnerd idiot, are ye ettlin tae follow Drums afore yir time?" And the med

inna show yir face in the fields till a' see ye. A'll gie ye a cry on Monday-si

d that Hillocks "wes keepin' the hoose," which meant that the patient had tea breakfast, and a

, and the only way of passage at times was the channel of the river-and the moorland district westwards till he came to the Dunleith sphere of influence, where there were four doctors and a hydropathic. Drumtochty in its length, which was eight miles, and its breadth, which was four, lay in his hand; besides a glen behind, unknown to the world, which in the night time he visited at the risk of life, for the way thereto was across t

ng into Jess's ears, and rising in the saddle beyond all necessity. But he could rise faster, stay longer in the saddle, and had a firmer grip with his knees than any one I ever met, and it was all for mercy's sake. When the reapers in harvest time saw a figure whirling past in a cloud of dust, or the family

kly. He was chest doctor and doctor for every other organ as well; he was accoucheur and surgeon; he was oculist and aurist; he was dentist and chloroformist, besides being chemist and druggist. It was often told how he was far up Glen Ur

' a'll never forget the puir lad lying as white as deith on the floor o' the loft, wi' his head on a shea

' heard the soond o' the horse's feet o

it doon the ladder as the doctor came skelpin' inta

in' board, and wes at his wark-sic wark, neeburs-but he did it weel. An' ae thing a' t

his airms like a bairn, and laid him in his bed, and waits aside him till he wes sleepin', and then says he

tae the yaird that day, neeburs; t

he moor rather than the drawing-room. But what a clever hand it was in an operation, as delicate as a woman's, and what a kindly voice it was in the humble room where the shepherd's wife was weeping by her man's bedside. He was "ill pitten thegither" to begin with, but many of his physical defects were the penalties of his work, and endeared him to the Glen. That ugly scar that cut into his right eyebrow and gave him such a sinister expression, was got one night Jess slipped on the ice and laid him insensible eight miles from home. His limp marked the big snowstorm in the fifties, when his horse missed the road in Glen Urtach, and they rolled together in a drif

is jacket and waistcoat were rough homespun of Glen Urtach wool, which threw off the wet like a duck's back, and below he was clad in shepherd's tartan trousers, which disappeared into unpolished riding boots. His shirt was grey flannel, and he was uncertai

wenty year, an' a' mind masel him gettin' a tear ahint, whe

new pair made in Muirtown aince in the twa year maybe, a

ke tae see him withoot them: it wud be a shock tae confidence. There's no muckle o' the check left, but ye can aye t

ounded, and rested partly on long experience of the doc

een them they've hed the countyside for weel on tae a century; if Mac

came a parish which was quite self-contained between the woods and the hill

udgment on sermons or anything else was seldom at fault; "an' a kind-hearted, th

ere's nae new-fangled wys wi' him: a blister for the ootside an' Epsom salts for

ded Elspeth, with sound Calvinistic logic; "but a'll say this for the doctor, th

hin' wrang," and Mrs. Macfadyen's face reflected another of

sit up a' nicht wi' him, an' naethin' wud do but they maun h

hepherd's wife Dunleith wy, and he comes her

no an accident, is't?' and when he got aff his h

it's Hopps' laddie; he's be

turn on me

e mean

I tried tae quiet him,

o hurry with you Scotchmen. My boy has been sick all night, and I've never had on

attend tae every bairn that hes a sair

ways says to Mrs. 'Opps, "Look on me as a family friend,

aifter. There's naethin' wrang wi' yir laddie but greed. Gie him a gude dose

il, doctor. We have given u

medicines hae ye

oeopathists, and I've my little chest h

and taks oot the bit bottles, and he r

xt? Weel, ma mannie,' he says tae Hopps, 'it's a fine ploy, and ye 'ill better gan

he fever, and it's tae be a teuch fecht. A' hinna time tae wait for dinner; gie

eed a doctor; na, na, gie yir siller tae some puir body, Mais

lk chose to give him, and he collecte

and bairn? Ye 'ill need three notes for that n

er, "prices are low, a'm hea

ill tak ma ears off," and i

et in about ￡150 a year, out of which he had to pay his old housekeeper's wages and a boy's, and keep two hors

barn. (It was Milton the Glen supposed at first to be a Mormon, but I can't go into that now.) He offered McLure a pound less than he asked, and two tracts, whereupon MacLure expre

d the meeting, but he hastened to condole with Milton,

ll maybe roose the Glen tae mak a s

im no mair than seeven mile awa, an' a'm

Glen, for a' body kens yir as f

Man, ye chose it weel, for he's been colleckin

ude Samaritan, an' the Pharisees didna think muckle o' h