Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

KYLE RICH.
435
man's horse." No sooner, however, had Mrs. Nicholson
taken possession of the gentleman and his horse, and his
property also, securing thus the soul and body both of
Don Pedro, than all this civility vanished on a sudden
small as it was before. I asked for the ferryman, and
the boat, and the tide—she kenn'd naething about the
ferry— " Why, I thought you said this was the ferryhouse."—
" That was true ; but the ferry boat was half
a mile off, and she had nothing to do with the ferryman,
and her husband was not at home, and the ferryboat
would not take a horse, and Mrs. Nicholson did not care
what became of the horse, or of me, or of the tide,"
" Would she not send."—'* Na—I might gang and speer
myself if I likit."—Good Highland civility, this ;
—
; ;
particu-
larly to your landlord's friend.—But Mrs. Nicholson said
she cared not a baubee for my Lord nor his friends neither.
I was obliged to go and look after the ferryboat my-
self. When I came there, there was a boat, it is true
but the ferryman was at Church, five miles off, on the
other side of the water; he would probably be back by
twelve o'clock, or two, or three, or not at all. When I
returned to Mrs. Nicholson, the breakfast was not ready.
" Where is my breakfast."—«' And dev ye want breakfast."—
" The deuce is in you."— " Ye manna swear on
the sabbath," said the puritanical hag, " but ye'll get
your breakfast :
Aye, aye, ye's get gude tea and eggs.'*
It was twelve o'clock before this breakfast came; and,
instead of tea and eggs, there entered a dirty wooden
bowl full of salt herrings and potatoes. This was the
very diet with which her villanous ancestry fed the pri-
soners who were thrust into their dungeons to choak with
thirst: and when I remonstrated, she told me that I was
" ower fine, and a saut herring was a gude breakfast for
ony gentleman, let alone the like o'me." It was impos-
sible to eat salt herrings, after six hour's walking and
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