Malcolm

s every way-only of the roofs could you predict the position; were divided from each other by every sort of small, irregular space and passage, and looked like a national

es, but so closely built, so thickly inhabited, and so pervaded with "a very ancient and fishlike smell," that but for the besom of the salt north wind it must have been unhealthy. Eastward the houses could extend

indow in the seaward gable of which was filled with a curious collection of things for sale-dusty looking sweets in a glass bottle; gingerbread cakes in the shape of large hearts, thickly studded with sugar plum

nd in at its open door. But the moment it was entered it lost all appearance of a shop, and

ve themsels the day, daddy?"

who was leaning over a small peat fire on the hearth, sifting oatmeal through the fingers of h

oms of decay, and decided measures had had to be again and again resorted to in the case of the latter to put off its evil day, and keep within it the breath of its musical existence. The youth's question, then, as to the behaviour of t

l I mak oot the parritch? thinkin ye've had en

m. Ta tay will tawn when her poy must make his own parritch, an' she'll be wantin' no more parri

ong confinement in the grave, and generally had a word or two ready wherewith to combat the frightful notion; but, as he s

putter, or ta traicle, or ta pottle o' peer, s

, that he was stone blind. It came neither of old age nor disease-he had been born blind. His eyes, although large and wide, looked like those of a sleep walker-open with shut sense

on?" he said, when he heard

ode of speech was entirely different from his grandfather's: the latter had learned En

ion and conflagration, entered, and said, in a loud screetch-"Maister MacPhail, my

yers yet, and you know fery well tat she won't sell pefore she's made her prayers. T

esser; tilted the table, and wiped it hearthward-then from a shelf took down and laid upon it a bible, before which he seated himself with an air of reverence. The old man sat down on

beannuich

than the tune-wild and wailful as the wind of his native desolations, or as the sound of his own pipes borne thereon; and apparently all but lawless, for the multitude of so called grace notes, hovering and fluttering endlessly around the centre tone like the comments on a text, r

the Bible, plainly the next in an ordered succession, for it could never have been chosen or culled; after which they kneeled together, and the old man poured out a prayer, beginning in a low, scarcely audible voice, which rose at length to a loud, modulated chant. Not a sentence, hardly a phrase, of

e presented itself to him. Nay, although, understanding both languages, he used that which was unintelligible to the lad, he yet regarded

hills. You see, Malcolm, it must be so, for how can a mortal man speak to his God in anything put Gaelic? When Mr Craham-no, not Mr Craham, ta coot man; it was ta new Minister-he speak an' say to her: 'Mr MacPhail, you ought to make your prayers in Enclish,' I was fery wrathful, and I answered and said: 'Mr Downey, do you tare to suppose tat God doesn't prefer ta Gaelic to ta Sassenach tongue!'-'Mr MacPhail,' says he, 'it'll pe for your poy I mean it How's ta lad to learn ta way of s

o learn me?" asked

elic; put she always has to set ta tead men-that is ta vords-on their feet, and put tem in pattle array, when she would pe speaking ta dull mechanic English. When she opens her mouth to it, ta

lic shape, and sent from it a strange gabble, imitative of the

asked, after jabbering gibbe

ay pefore tey pekin to speak it properly. So it 's all fery well, and if you will only pe putting your mouth in ta Gaelic shape often enough, ta sounds will soo

ult he anticipated: he had thought only to make his grandfath

ou: you'll never pe a man-not to speak of a pard like your

tching them up softly, put the mouthpiece to his lips. With a few vigorous blasts he filled the bag, and out burst the double droning bass, while the youth's fingers, clutching the chanter as by the thr

but far more in delight with the musician, while, ever and anon, with feeble yell, he uttered the unspellable Hoogh of the Highl

r till her poy, how he makes ta pipes speak ta true Gaelic! Ta pest o' Gaelic, tat! Old Tuncan's pipes 'll not know how to be talking Sassenach. See t

ey, nor lilt, but jist

th instrument as the miser's to finger his gold; "hear well to me as I play, and you'll soon be

in the middle of a coronach, followed by an abrupt pause, revealed the emptiness of both lu

fering the pipes to his gra

ould hardly have been serious in requesting Malcolm to

r Graham's flute music, and maybe that'll help me a bit.-Wadn

n beings. His eyes, or indeed perhaps rather his whole face, appeared to possess an ethereal sense as of touch, for, without the slightest contact in the ordinary sense of the word, he was aware of the neighbourhood of material objects, as if through the pulsations of some medium to others imperceptible. He could, with perfect accuracy, tell the height of any wall or fence w

s kilt had faded-noticeable chiefly on weekdays, when he wore no sporran; for the kilt, encountering, from its loose construction, comparatively little strain or friction, may reach an antiquity unknown to the garments of the low country, and, while perfectly decent, yet look ancient exceedingly. On Sundays, however, he made the best of himself, and came out like a belated and aged butterfly-with his father's sporr

ur as he passed them-the fact being that he had not yet recovered from his second revel in the pipes

me cauld nicht," said the other:

sed, the blin' body! It's exterordinor hoo he's managed to

pipin' 's no to be despised; an' there's the cryin', an' the chop, an' the lamps. 'Deed he

first he cam' to

r me min'in' that?

they tell me wasna muckle bigger n

d man than, though nae doobt

bairn, they s

he father or mither o' 'im, an' sae it weel may be as they say. It's nigh twenty y

il, an' he maun hae come here in hidin' for som

tin' the een to guide them, canna be that far aff the straucht. Guid guide 's! we hae en

hat fowk telled me," re

that, for I ken there