第38章 THE LAD WITH THE SILVER BUTTON:THROUGH THE ISLE OF

The Ross of Mull,which I had now got upon,was rugged and trackless,like the isle I had just left;being all bog,and brier,and big stone.There may be roads for them that know that country well;but for my part I had no better guide than my own nose,and no other landmark than Ben More.

I aimed as well as I could for the smoke I had seen so often from the island;and with all my great weariness and the difficulty of the way came upon the house in the bottom of a little hollow about five or six at night.It was low and longish,roofed with turf and built of unmortared stones;and on a mound in front of it,an old gentleman sat smoking his pipe in the sun.

With what little English he had,he gave me to understand that my shipmates had got safe ashore,and had broken bread in that very house on the day after.

"Was there one,"I asked,"dressed like a gentleman?"He said they all wore rough great-coats;but to be sure,the first of them,the one that came alone,wore breeches and stockings,while the rest had sailors'trousers.

"Ah,"said I,"and he would have a feathered hat?"He told me,no,that he was bareheaded like myself.

At first I thought Alan might have lost his hat;and then the rain came in my mind,and I judged it more likely he had it out of harm's way under his great-coat.This set me smiling,partly because my friend was safe,partly to think of his vanity in dress.

And then the old gentleman clapped his hand to his brow,and cried out that I must be the lad with the silver button.

"Why,yes!"said I,in some wonder.

"Well,then,"said the old gentleman,"I have a word for you,that you are to follow your friend to his country,by Torosay."He then asked me how I had fared,and I told him my tale.Asouth-country man would certainly have laughed;but this old gentleman (I call him so because of his manners,for his clothes were dropping off his back)heard me all through with nothing but gravity and pity.When I had done,he took me by the hand,led me into his hut (it was no better)and presented me before his wife,as if she had been the Queen and I a duke.

The good woman set oat-bread before me and a cold grouse,patting my shoulder and smiling to me all the time,for she had no English;and the old gentleman (not to be behind)brewed me a strong punch out of their country spirit.All the while I was eating,and after that when I was drinking the punch,I could scarce come to believe in my good fortune;and the house,though it was thick with the peat-smoke and as full of holes as a colander,seemed like a palace.

The punch threw me in a strong sweat and a deep slumber;the good people let me lie;and it was near noon of the next day before Itook the road,my throat already easier and my spirits quite restored by good fare and good news.The old gentleman,although I pressed him hard,would take no money,and gave me an old bonnet for my head;though I am free to own I was no sooner out of view of the house than I very jealously washed this gift of his in a wayside fountain.

Thought I to myself:"If these are the wild Highlanders,I could wish my own folk wilder."I not only started late,but I must have wandered nearly half the time.True,I met plenty of people,grubbing in little miserable fields that would not keep a cat,or herding little kine about the bigness of asses.The Highland dress being forbidden by law since the rebellion,and the people condemned to the Lowland habit,which they much disliked,it was strange to see the variety of their array.Some went bare,only for a hanging cloak or great-coat,and carried their trousers on their backs like a useless burthen:some had made an imitation of the tartan with little parti-coloured stripes patched together like an old wife's quilt;others,again,still wore the Highland philabeg,but by putting a few stitches between the legs transformed it into a pair of trousers like a Dutchman's.All those makeshifts were condemned and punished,for the law was harshly applied,in hopes to break up the clan spirit;but in that out-of-the-way,sea-bound isle,there were few to make remarks and fewer to tell tales.

They seemed in great poverty;which was no doubt natural,now that rapine was put down,and the chiefs kept no longer an open house;and the roads (even such a wandering,country by--track as the one I followed)were infested with beggars.And here again Imarked a difference from my own part of the country.For our Lowland beggars --even the gownsmen themselves,who beg by patent --had a louting,flattering way with them,and if you gave them a plaek and asked change,would very civilly return you a boddle.But these Highland beggars stood on their dignity,asked alms only to buy snuff (by their account)and would give no change.

To be sure,this was no concern of mine,except in so far as it entertained me by the way.What was much more to the purpose,few had any English,and these few (unless they were of the brotherhood of beggars)not very anxious to place it at my service.I knew Torosay to be my destination,and repeated the name to them and pointed;but instead of simply pointing in reply,they would give me a screed of the Gaelic that set me foolish;so it was small wonder if I went out of my road as often as I stayed in it.

At last,about eight at night,and already very weary,I came to a lone house,where I asked admittance,and was refused,until Ibethought me of the power of money in so poor a country,and held up one of my guineas in my finger and thumb.Thereupon,the man of the house,who had hitherto pretended to have no English,and driven me from his door by signals,suddenly began to speak as clearly as was needful,and agreed for five shillings to give me a night's lodging and guide me the next day to Torosay.