The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

72 The Highland Monthly.
CHAPTER IV.
On a comparison of dates it was clear that on the very day
when, according to mine host's story, Willie Gillies had
expressed a strong desire to see me, in the midst of other
and different thoughts his image had strongly recurred to
my memory far away in the country. When I made
further inquiries, I found that not only the day, but the
hour and minute coincided. In "Jane Eyre," Charlotte
Bronte relates a similar incident with more striking details.
The little recluse of Haworth had herself experienced what
she describes. I dislike philosophising on circumstances
like this, because they are not properly subject to the
judgment or reason, since they are not consistent with the
known laws of mind ;
and
the attributes of mind, or quali-
ties external to mind, by which they are produced, remain
a mystery. But I have much of the faith of a little child
respecting many things " not dreamt of in our philosophy,"
and so I deemed the circumstance a sufficient reason for
exchanging the district alloted for my peregrinations with
a brother official, that I might have an opportunity of visit-
ing Willie at his mother's home.
My new district included stretches of Highland Border
land, with which I was best well acquainted. I first
traversed it in October. The weather was fine— frost
by night, mist in the morning, and bright sunshine in the
middle of the day. I always enjoy that kind of weather.
The chill of the evening renders the "fire only the more
pleasant, and the social circle cosier, nor is it unpleasant
for a valetudinarian himself, if well wrapped up, to stroll
out into the hoary frosted fields, and gaze upwards on the
myriad stars. When that sheet of diamond-crystalised dew
is liquified and evaporised by the level sunbeams, a blanket
canopies the sky, but the red eye of day pierces through
the covering, and we wait contentedly for its ultimate
triumph. This kind of weather is to me exceedingly enjoy-