The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

A Strange Revenue.
When at last wind and rain ceased, and the rivers
retreated sullenly to their natural channels, the scenes
revealed were pitiful. The carcase of a horse here, of a
cow there, those- of sheep by the dozens ; domestic utensils
—including that pathetic thing, a cradle—mixed up with
the produce of the farm ; the whole roof of a house
stranded ; a cart with one wheel ; the machinery of a meal
mill ; great bridges rent in twain—saddest of all, the
finding of bleached, sanded human corpses, innocent
sacrifices to the glut of the storm demon. The damage to
property was estimated at hundreds of thousands ; but no
one attempted to cypher the ledger of human misery.
The laird of Stuart suffered from the flood like his
neighbours, and to a much greater extent, it turned out, than
he dreamt of, as he had sat in the Castle listening to the
eerie pranks of the wind in the turrets and other uncanny
recesses and secret places cf the building.
" Two farms completely ruined," he announced at the
breakfast table, having by eight o'clock made an inspection
of the more exposed portion of his property, near the
river. " Macgillivray, poor fellow, has been camping in the
wood all night with his family. Of his steading all that
remains is a gable, of his crops half an acre of turnips may
be fit for use— all the rest, including twelve acres of the
finest oats I have ever seen, washed clean away from the
face of the earth. Macbean, his neighbour, has fared
scarcely better. His houses stood on a higher level, and in
a more protected situation, but the water reached the eaves
of his dwelling, and carried away the roofs of the others.
Crops, or what is left of them, under at least a foot deep of
debris, and at least an acre of the best land has been eaten up.
Upon my word, lads, the valley looks as if the devil himself
had been holding high jinks in it."
"That is more serious for you than the tenants, father,"
said David, pausing in his eating.
" -^300 of rent lost in the first place !"
" The tenants can get other farms, you see."