The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

,•^54 ^^^^' Hio/ilaiid Monthly.
would soon be in. Especially was she vexed to find that
a quantity of veal which happened to be the only cooked
meat in the house had been consumed by the hungry
strangers. And, in the circumstances, can we blame her
though she reproved the really provoking hospitality of her
husband.
A year passed away, and one day Dalfuaran, while
occupied in his stackyard, saw a large drove approach. As
they came nearer the owner rode forward in advance and
called out— " Are not you James Dubh Macandrew Mac-
william More of Dalfuaran ?"
" Yes, that is my name," shouted the tacksman in return,
" but I know not who it is that so addresses me."
" No matter," replied the other, " this is my drove which
is now about to cross the hill, and, as I hear that you are
an excellent judge of black cattle, I would esteem it a great
favour if you would look through these and point out the
best stot among them."
James Dubh, nothing loth, did as he was requested.
Whereupon the stranger told his drivers to put the beast
into the Dalfuaran fold, and, turning to the wondering
tacksman, explained to him that it had been his servants
who had been so handsomely entertained by him the
preceding harvest, and he now begged of him to accept that
acknowledgment of his kindness. The rider then, after
some expressions of mutual goodwill were enterchanged,
rode hurriedly away, and the old tacksman went into the
house, and calling for his wife, said, " Come, Bell, and see
the calf you lost last year. Never after this cast a grudging
eye after food given to strangers."
The friendship between the tacksmen of Glenbeltane
and Dell, whose houses were separated by only one range
of hills, was an alliance of a more intimate sort, for at all the
great handlings of stock on their respective farms their
shepherds assisted each other, and scarcely a week passed
without an interchange of hospitality between the two