The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Scenes of Long Ago. 299
and had done barrack duty in England. His scanty
pension being inadequate for the support of his wife and
family, he eked it out by doing odd jobs for the tacksmen
of Duncairn, and by making an annual round of the great
fairs of the south with a puppet show which he possessed.
When with us, his usual employment was to repair the
ravages occasioned by the winter storms, to which the
house of Glenbeltane, with its adjoining homestead, were
greatly exposed. Except those covered with the heavy
grey slabs, that defied the blast, all the roofs on the farm
came in for a share, more or less, of Finlay's attention.
Before slates were generally employed as a covering for the
roofs of houses, thatching formed a very important industry,
and in this, perhaps, soon to be forgotten art, the lighthearted
rambler had attained no mean skill. Whether
plying his trade on the ladder and the roof, among bundles
of black-rooted brackens, or sitting at night by the kitchen
fire, doing coopering and rough wood-carving for the women,
and shaping crooks for the herds, Finlay was a most enter-
taining companion. His \'ein 01 Inimour was quite-
different from that of Johnnie of Pitstitchie. That facetious
tradesman dearl)' loved to retail the current gossip of the
country ;
but in this Finlay took no great interest. Rather
would he discourse learnedly of foreign States and well-
fought fields ;
of the marvellous fertility of St Christopher
and Jamaica, and of the fortunes that were made there; of
the wealth and magnificence of London and certain
European towns which he had visited. Often wculcl this
kindly, genial man continue far into the night to pour forth
his tales of wonder to a circle of willing listeners. That
circle usually included one or more of those half-witted
vagrants, who lived by making a constant round of certain
families, whom they regarded as their patrons. There was,
for instance, the Pigeon Man, Fearnan Caiman. This poor
fellow rarely uttered a single word, but, sitting in the peat
nook by the fireside, altogether engrossed with his own