The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Scenes of Long Ago. 165
with a thick sheet of ice—save those mysterious parts
which, perhaps in consequence of hidden springs, rarely or
never became congealed.
When a great booming noise arose in Corrie GobHn,
Mark Teviot would sometimes look anxious, and say that
a storm was at hand ; but apparently similar sounds from
the same quarter indicated to his practised ear an approach-
ing thaw.
Would that some passing and propitious muse might
aid m}' feeble pen, as now, after the lapse of many years, I
would sing, in no sad tone, the Winter Nights of my first
recollection, which seem in the distant perspective all
blended into one. Outside the House of Glenbeltane might
be darkness and tempest, but within was warmth and light
and innocent enjoyment. The sheep are secure under the
shelter of the great wood ;
the
horses and cattle are snugly
and
housed, with recently replenished hack and manger ;
the shepherds, free from every care, are grouped around the
wide kitchen hearth, where glow of genial humour animates
every heart. The women folk have still their household
duties to attend to—baking, peeling potatoes, knitting,
attending to the fire, and what not ; while ever keeping a
sharp ear to what is being said, and joining in the conversa-
tion as they come and go.
There, from time to time, might be heard some plaintive
elegy upon the death in battle of one of the Chiefs of Duncairn,
or a song of many stanzas celebrating the power and
munificence of the same noble line. Now it would be the
mournful strains of despairing love, and anon the gay
notes of a tender carol, that claimed our attention.
Among the numerous occasional visitants of our circle,
one there w^as, for whose coming w^e always looked with
pleasure. This was Johnnie of Pitstitchie, the tailor from
Balmosis, who used to ply his craft upon the spacious table
that stood between the wall and the fire. Though his right
hand moved rapidly, its utmost speed was slow in com-
parison with the swiftness of his tongue ;
and the quips and