August 10, 2025 • 16 mins
https://www.solgoodmedia.com Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad-free! Step into a world of daily intrigue and timeless tales with our Classic Adventure Podcast Series! Each day, we bring to life a new chapter from a beloved classic, inviting you on an exhilarating journey through some of the greatest adventure stories ever written. Imagine unraveling the mysteries with Sherlock Holmes, exploring bizarre landscapes with Alice, or circumnavigating the globe in just eighty days. Why settle for mundane daily commutes or routine chores when you can escape into the thrilling escapades of "Treasure Island" or the eerie encounters in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"? Our podcast transforms your every day into a captivating adventure, perfect for both the literary enthusiast and the casual listener seeking an escape from the ordinary. Join us as we traverse the dark depths of "Heart of Darkness," soar through the imaginative realms of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," and survive the wilds with "Robinson Crusoe." Each episode is crafted to make the classics accessible and exciting, ensuring that whether you're reliving your favorite tales or discovering them for the first time, you're guaranteed a gripping experience. Subscribe to our Classic Adventure Podcast Series today and start your daily adventure! Let us awaken the explorer in you as we delve into these timeless narratives, chapter by chapter, transforming your daily routine into an extraordinary journey through the pages of history's most thrilling adventures. Don't just listen to stories—live them every day with us!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter sixteen, The lad with the Silver Button. Across Morven.
There is a regular ferry from torres Say to Kinloch
Aleeen on the mainland, both shores of the sound, or
in the country of the strong clan of the Mcleans,
and the people that passed the ferry with me were
almost all of that clan. The skipper of the boat,
(00:21):
on the other hand, was called neil Roy Macrob, And
since Macrob was one of the names of Allan's clansmen,
and Allan himself had sent me to that ferry, I
was eager to come to private speech of neil Roy
in the crowded boat. This was, of course impossible, and
the passage was a very slow affair. There was no wind,
(00:42):
and as the boat was wretchedly equipped, we could pull
but two oars on one side and one on the other.
The men gave way, however, with a good will, the
passengers taking spells to help them, and the whole company
giving the time in Gaelic boat's songs. And what were
the songs and the sea and the good nature and
spirit of all concern and the bright weather. The passage
(01:05):
was a pretty thing to have seen. But there was
one melancholy part. In the mouth of lach Aline, we
found a great sea going ship at anchor, and this
I supposed at first to be one of the King's cruisers,
which were kept along that coast both summer and winter,
to prevent communication with the French. As we got a
little nearer, it became plain she was a ship of merchandise.
(01:29):
And what still more puzzled me. Not only her decks,
but the sea beach also were quite black with people,
and skiffs were continually plying to and fro between them.
Yet nearer, and there began to come to our ears
a great sound of mourning, the people on board and
those on the shore crying and lamenting one to another
(01:50):
so as to pierce the heart. Then I understood this
was an emigrant ship bound for the American colonies. We
put the ferryboat alongside, and the exiles leaned over the bulwarks,
weeping and reaching out their hands to my fellow passengers,
among whom they counted some near friends. How long this
might have gone on I do not know, for they
(02:11):
seemed to have no sense of time. But at last
the captain of the ship, who seemed near beside himself
and no great wonder in the midst of this crying
and confusion, came to the side and begged us to depart.
Thereupon Neil sheered off, and the chief singer in our
boat struck into a melancholy air, which was presently taken
(02:33):
up both by the emigrants and their friends upon the beach,
so that it sounded from all sides like a lament
for the dying. I saw the tears run down the
cheeks of the men and women in the boat, even
as they bent at the oars. And the circumstances and
the music of the song, which is one called lach
Abra no More, were highly affecting, even to myself. At
(02:57):
Kinloch Aleen, I got Neil Roy upon one side on
the beach and said, I made sure he was one
of Appin's men. And what for, no, said he. I
am seeking somebody, said I, and it comes in my
mind that you will have news of him. Alan breck
Stewart is his name. And very foolishly, instead of showing
(03:20):
him the button, I sought to pass a shilling in
his hand. At this he drew back. I am very
much affronted, he said, And this is not the way
that one gentleman should behave to another at all. The
man you asked for is in France, but if he
were in my sporn, says he, and your belly full
of shillings that would not hurt a hair upon his body.
(03:43):
I saw I had gone the wrong way to work,
and without wasting time upon apologies, showed him the button
lying in the hollow of my palm. Hahuil. Wuil said Neil,
and I think you might have begun with that end
of the stick whatever. But if you are the lad
with silver button, all is well, and I have the
word to see that you come safe. But if you
(04:06):
will pardon me to speak plainly, says he, there is
a name that you should never take into your mouth,
and that is the name of Alan Breck. And there
is a thing that you would never do, and that
is to offer your dirty money to a heilen gentleman.
It was not very easy to apologize, for I could
scarce tell him what was the truth that I had
(04:28):
never dreamed he would set up to be a gentleman
until he told me so. Neil, on his part, had
no wish to prolong his dealings with me, only to
fulfill his orders and be done with it, and he
made haste to give me my route. This was to
lie the Knight in king Lacheleen and the public inn,
to cross Morvan the next day to Ardgour, and lie
(04:49):
the Knight in the house of one John of the Claymore,
who was warned that I might come the third day
to be set across one lock at Korn and another
at Balak foolish, and then asked my way to the
house of James of the Glens at Okhrn Endure of Appen.
There was a good deal of faring, as you hear
(05:10):
the sea in all this part, running deep into the
mountains and winding about their roots. It makes the country
strong to hold and difficult to travel, but full of prodigious,
wild and dreadful prospects. I had some other advice from
Neil to speak with no one by the way, to
avoid Whigs, Campbell's and the Red soldiers. To leave the
(05:32):
road and lie in a bush if I saw any
of the latter coming, for it was never chancey to
meet in with them, And in brief to conduct myself
like a robber or a Jacobite agent, as perhaps Neil
thought me. The inn at Kinloch Aleen was the most
beggarly vile place that ever. Pigs were stied in, full
(05:53):
of smoke, vermin and silent highlanders. I was not only
discontented with my lodging, but with my for my mismanagement
of Neil, and thought I could hardly be worse off,
but very wrongly, as I was soon to see. For
I had not been half an hour at the inn,
standing in the door most of the time to ease
my eyes from the peat smoke. When a thunder storm
(06:16):
came close by, the springs broke in the little hill
on which the inn stood, and one end of the
house became a running water. Places of public entertainment were
bad enough all over Scotland in those days. Yet it
was a wonder to myself when I had to go
from the fireside to the bed in which I slept,
weeding over the shoes. Early in my next day's journey,
(06:39):
I overtook a little stout solemn man, walking very slowly
with his toes turned out, sometimes reading in a book
and sometimes marking the place with his finger, and dressed
decently and plainly in something of a clerical style. This
I found to be another Catechist, but of a different
order from the blind Man of Mull, being indeed one
(07:01):
of those sent out by the Edinburgh Society for propagating
Christian knowledge to evangelize the more savage places of the Highlands.
His name was Henderlund. He spoke with a broad South
country tongue, which I was beginning to weary for the
sound of. And besides common country ship, we soon found
we had a more particular bond of interest. For my
(07:24):
good friend, the Minister of Essendean had translated into the
Gaelic in his by time a number of hymns and
pious books, which Henderlund used in his work and held
in great esteem. Indeed, it was one of these he
was carrying and reading when we met. We fell in
company at once, our ways, lying together as far as
(07:46):
to Kingerloch. As we went, he stopped and spoke with
all the wayfarers and workers that we met or passed.
And though of course I could not tell what they
discoursed about, yet I judge mister Hendelin must be well
liked in the country, for I observed many of them
to bring out their mulls and share a pinch of
snuff with him. I told him as far in my affairs,
(08:07):
as I judge wise, as far that is, as they
were none of Allan's, and gave balicoulish as the place
I was traveling to to meet a friend, for I
thought Akharan or even Duror would be too particular and
might put him on the scent. On his part, he
told me much of his work and the people he
(08:28):
worked among, the hiding priests and Jacobites, the Disarming Act,
the dress, and many other curiosities of the time and place.
He seemed moderate, blaming Parliament in several points, and especially
because they had framed the act more severely against those
who wore the dress than against those who carried weapons.
(08:51):
This moderation put it in my mind to question him
of the red Fox and the app and tenants, questions
which I thought would seem natural enough in the mouth
of work one traveling to that country. He said it
was a bad business. It's wonderful, said he. Where the
tenants find the money for their life is mere starvation.
(09:12):
You don't carry such a thing as snuff, do you,
mister Balfour. No, well, I'm better wanting it. But these tenants,
as I was saying, are doubtless partly driven to it.
James Stewart Endure, that's him. They call James of the Glens,
his half brother to Ardshield, the captain of the clan,
and he is a man much looked up to and
(09:34):
drives very hard. And then this one they call Alan Breck. Ah,
I cried, what of him? What of the wind that
bloweth where it listeth? Said Henderlen. He's here in a way,
here to day and gone tomorrow a fair heather cat.
He might be glowering at the two of us out
of yon Windbush. And I wouldn't wonder you now carry
(09:57):
such a thing a snuff? Will you told him now?
And that he had asked the same thing more than once.
It's highly possible, said he, sighing. But it seems strange
you shouldn't carry it. However, I was saying this. Alan
Breck is a bold, desperate customer, and well kent to
be James's right hand. His life is forfoot already. He
(10:20):
would boggle at nehin and maybe if a tenant body
were to hang back, he would get a dirk in
his way. You make a poor story of it all,
mister Hendlen, said I if it is all fear upon
both sides. I care to hear no more of it, nah,
said mister Henderlen. But there's love too, and self denial
(10:41):
that should put the like of you and meat to shame.
There's something fine about it, No, perhaps Christian, but humanly fine.
Even Alan Breck by all that I hear, is a
chield to be respected. There's many a lion's snack draw
sits closing kirk in our own part of the country,
and stands well in the world's eye. And maybe he
(11:02):
is a far worse man, mister Balfour, than yon misguided
shadder of man's blood. II II we might take a
lesson by them. You'll perhaps think I've been too long
in the highlands, he added, smiling to me. I told
him not at all, that I had seen much to
admire among the highlanders. And if he came to that,
(11:23):
mister Campbell himself was a highlander, I said he that's true.
It's a fine blood. And what is the King's agent about,
I asked Colin Campbell, says Handelen, putting his head in
a bees bike. He is to turn the tenants out
by force, I hear, said, I, yes, says he. But
(11:47):
the business is gone back and forth, as folks say.
First James of the Glens rode to Edinburgh and got
some lawyer, a Stewart. In no doubt they all hang
together like bats and a steeple, and had the proceedings staid.
And then Colin Campbell came in again and had the
upper hand before the barons of Exchequer. And now they
(12:07):
tell me the first of the tenants are to flit tomorrow.
It's to begin at Durer under James's very windows, which
doesna seem wise by my humble way of it. Do
you think they'll fight? I asked, Well, says Henderland. They're disarmed,
or supposed to be, for there's still a good deal
(12:28):
of cold iron lying by in quiet places. And then
Colin Campbell has the soldiers coming. But for all that,
if I was his lady wife, I wouldn't be well
pleased till I got him home again. They're queer customers,
the appen Stuarts. I asked if they were worse than
their neighbors. No, they said he And that's the worst
(12:50):
part of it. For if Colin Roy can get his
business done and appen, he has it all to begin
again in the next country which they call Memoir, and
which is one of the countries of the Camerons. He's
King's factor upon both, and from both he has to
drive out the tenants. And indeed, mister Balfour, to be
open with you, it's my belief that if he escapes
(13:12):
the one lot, he'd get his death by the other.
So we continued talking and walking the great part of
the day, until at last mister Hendelen, after expressing his
delight in my company and satisfaction at meeting with a
friend of mister Campbell's, whom says he and would make
the bold to call that sweet singer of our confident
(13:33):
in Zion, propose that I should make a short stage
and lie the night in his house a little beyond Kingerloch.
To say truth, I was overjoyed, for I had no
great desire for John of the Claymore, and since my
double misadventure first with a guide and next with the
gentleman's skipper, I stood in some fear of any highland stranger. Accordingly,
(13:56):
we shook hands upon the bargain and came in the
afternoon to a small house standing alone by the shore
of the line Loch. The sun was already gone from
the desert mountains of Ardgour upon the hither side, but
shone on those of append On the farther. The loch
lay as still as a lake. Only the gulls were
crying round the sides of it, and the whole place
(14:17):
seemed solemn and uncouth. We had no sooner come to
the door of mister Henderlen's dwelling than, to my great surprise,
for I was now used to the politeness of Highlanders.
He burst rudely past me, dashed into the room, bought
up a jar in a small horn spoon, and began
ladling snuff into his nose in most excessive quantities than
(14:40):
he had a hearty fit of sneezing, and looked round
upon me with a rather silly smile. It's a vow
I took, says he. I took a vow upon me
that I would not carry it. Doubtless it's a great privation.
But when I think upon the martyrs, not only to
the Scottish Covenant, but to other points of Christianity, I
think shame to mind it. As soon as we had
(15:04):
eaten and porridge, and why were the best of the
good Man's diet. He took a grave face and said
he had a duty to perform by mister Campbell, and
that was to inquire into my state of mind towards God.
I was inclined to smile at him since the business
of the snuff, but he had not spoken long before
he brought the tears into my eyes. There are two
(15:26):
things that men should never weary of goodness and humility.
We get none too much of them in this rough
world among cold, proud people. But mister Henderland had their
very speech upon his tongue. And though I was a
good deal puffed up with my adventures and with having
come off, as the saying is, with flying colors, yet
(15:48):
he soon had me on my knees beside, a simple,
poor old man, and both proud and glad to be there.
Before we went to bed, he offered me sixpence to
help me on my way out of a ganty's store
he kept in the turf wall of his house, at
which excess of goodness I knew not what to do.
But at last he was so earnest with me that
(16:09):
I thought it the more mannerly part to let him
have his way, and so left him poorer than myself.
End of chapter
Chapter sixteen, The lad with the Silver Button. Across Morven.
There is a regular ferry from torres Say to Kinloch
Aleeen on the mainland, both shores of the sound, or
in the country of the strong clan of the Mcleans,
and the people that passed the ferry with me were
almost all of that clan. The skipper of the boat,
(00:21):
on the other hand, was called neil Roy Macrob, And
since Macrob was one of the names of Allan's clansmen,
and Allan himself had sent me to that ferry, I
was eager to come to private speech of neil Roy
in the crowded boat. This was, of course impossible, and
the passage was a very slow affair. There was no wind,
(00:42):
and as the boat was wretchedly equipped, we could pull
but two oars on one side and one on the other.
The men gave way, however, with a good will, the
passengers taking spells to help them, and the whole company
giving the time in Gaelic boat's songs. And what were
the songs and the sea and the good nature and
spirit of all concern and the bright weather. The passage
(01:05):
was a pretty thing to have seen. But there was
one melancholy part. In the mouth of lach Aline, we
found a great sea going ship at anchor, and this
I supposed at first to be one of the King's cruisers,
which were kept along that coast both summer and winter,
to prevent communication with the French. As we got a
little nearer, it became plain she was a ship of merchandise.
(01:29):
And what still more puzzled me. Not only her decks,
but the sea beach also were quite black with people,
and skiffs were continually plying to and fro between them.
Yet nearer, and there began to come to our ears
a great sound of mourning, the people on board and
those on the shore crying and lamenting one to another
(01:50):
so as to pierce the heart. Then I understood this
was an emigrant ship bound for the American colonies. We
put the ferryboat alongside, and the exiles leaned over the bulwarks,
weeping and reaching out their hands to my fellow passengers,
among whom they counted some near friends. How long this
might have gone on I do not know, for they
(02:11):
seemed to have no sense of time. But at last
the captain of the ship, who seemed near beside himself
and no great wonder in the midst of this crying
and confusion, came to the side and begged us to depart.
Thereupon Neil sheered off, and the chief singer in our
boat struck into a melancholy air, which was presently taken
(02:33):
up both by the emigrants and their friends upon the beach,
so that it sounded from all sides like a lament
for the dying. I saw the tears run down the
cheeks of the men and women in the boat, even
as they bent at the oars. And the circumstances and
the music of the song, which is one called lach
Abra no More, were highly affecting, even to myself. At
(02:57):
Kinloch Aleen, I got Neil Roy upon one side on
the beach and said, I made sure he was one
of Appin's men. And what for, no, said he. I
am seeking somebody, said I, and it comes in my
mind that you will have news of him. Alan breck
Stewart is his name. And very foolishly, instead of showing
(03:20):
him the button, I sought to pass a shilling in
his hand. At this he drew back. I am very
much affronted, he said, And this is not the way
that one gentleman should behave to another at all. The
man you asked for is in France, but if he
were in my sporn, says he, and your belly full
of shillings that would not hurt a hair upon his body.
(03:43):
I saw I had gone the wrong way to work,
and without wasting time upon apologies, showed him the button
lying in the hollow of my palm. Hahuil. Wuil said Neil,
and I think you might have begun with that end
of the stick whatever. But if you are the lad
with silver button, all is well, and I have the
word to see that you come safe. But if you
(04:06):
will pardon me to speak plainly, says he, there is
a name that you should never take into your mouth,
and that is the name of Alan Breck. And there
is a thing that you would never do, and that
is to offer your dirty money to a heilen gentleman.
It was not very easy to apologize, for I could
scarce tell him what was the truth that I had
(04:28):
never dreamed he would set up to be a gentleman
until he told me so. Neil, on his part, had
no wish to prolong his dealings with me, only to
fulfill his orders and be done with it, and he
made haste to give me my route. This was to
lie the Knight in king Lacheleen and the public inn,
to cross Morvan the next day to Ardgour, and lie
(04:49):
the Knight in the house of one John of the Claymore,
who was warned that I might come the third day
to be set across one lock at Korn and another
at Balak foolish, and then asked my way to the
house of James of the Glens at Okhrn Endure of Appen.
There was a good deal of faring, as you hear
(05:10):
the sea in all this part, running deep into the
mountains and winding about their roots. It makes the country
strong to hold and difficult to travel, but full of prodigious,
wild and dreadful prospects. I had some other advice from
Neil to speak with no one by the way, to
avoid Whigs, Campbell's and the Red soldiers. To leave the
(05:32):
road and lie in a bush if I saw any
of the latter coming, for it was never chancey to
meet in with them, And in brief to conduct myself
like a robber or a Jacobite agent, as perhaps Neil
thought me. The inn at Kinloch Aleen was the most
beggarly vile place that ever. Pigs were stied in, full
(05:53):
of smoke, vermin and silent highlanders. I was not only
discontented with my lodging, but with my for my mismanagement
of Neil, and thought I could hardly be worse off,
but very wrongly, as I was soon to see. For
I had not been half an hour at the inn,
standing in the door most of the time to ease
my eyes from the peat smoke. When a thunder storm
(06:16):
came close by, the springs broke in the little hill
on which the inn stood, and one end of the
house became a running water. Places of public entertainment were
bad enough all over Scotland in those days. Yet it
was a wonder to myself when I had to go
from the fireside to the bed in which I slept,
weeding over the shoes. Early in my next day's journey,
(06:39):
I overtook a little stout solemn man, walking very slowly
with his toes turned out, sometimes reading in a book
and sometimes marking the place with his finger, and dressed
decently and plainly in something of a clerical style. This
I found to be another Catechist, but of a different
order from the blind Man of Mull, being indeed one
(07:01):
of those sent out by the Edinburgh Society for propagating
Christian knowledge to evangelize the more savage places of the Highlands.
His name was Henderlund. He spoke with a broad South
country tongue, which I was beginning to weary for the
sound of. And besides common country ship, we soon found
we had a more particular bond of interest. For my
(07:24):
good friend, the Minister of Essendean had translated into the
Gaelic in his by time a number of hymns and
pious books, which Henderlund used in his work and held
in great esteem. Indeed, it was one of these he
was carrying and reading when we met. We fell in
company at once, our ways, lying together as far as
(07:46):
to Kingerloch. As we went, he stopped and spoke with
all the wayfarers and workers that we met or passed.
And though of course I could not tell what they
discoursed about, yet I judge mister Hendelin must be well
liked in the country, for I observed many of them
to bring out their mulls and share a pinch of
snuff with him. I told him as far in my affairs,
(08:07):
as I judge wise, as far that is, as they
were none of Allan's, and gave balicoulish as the place
I was traveling to to meet a friend, for I
thought Akharan or even Duror would be too particular and
might put him on the scent. On his part, he
told me much of his work and the people he
(08:28):
worked among, the hiding priests and Jacobites, the Disarming Act,
the dress, and many other curiosities of the time and place.
He seemed moderate, blaming Parliament in several points, and especially
because they had framed the act more severely against those
who wore the dress than against those who carried weapons.
(08:51):
This moderation put it in my mind to question him
of the red Fox and the app and tenants, questions
which I thought would seem natural enough in the mouth
of work one traveling to that country. He said it
was a bad business. It's wonderful, said he. Where the
tenants find the money for their life is mere starvation.
(09:12):
You don't carry such a thing as snuff, do you,
mister Balfour. No, well, I'm better wanting it. But these tenants,
as I was saying, are doubtless partly driven to it.
James Stewart Endure, that's him. They call James of the Glens,
his half brother to Ardshield, the captain of the clan,
and he is a man much looked up to and
(09:34):
drives very hard. And then this one they call Alan Breck. Ah,
I cried, what of him? What of the wind that
bloweth where it listeth? Said Henderlen. He's here in a way,
here to day and gone tomorrow a fair heather cat.
He might be glowering at the two of us out
of yon Windbush. And I wouldn't wonder you now carry
(09:57):
such a thing a snuff? Will you told him now?
And that he had asked the same thing more than once.
It's highly possible, said he, sighing. But it seems strange
you shouldn't carry it. However, I was saying this. Alan
Breck is a bold, desperate customer, and well kent to
be James's right hand. His life is forfoot already. He
(10:20):
would boggle at nehin and maybe if a tenant body
were to hang back, he would get a dirk in
his way. You make a poor story of it all,
mister Hendlen, said I if it is all fear upon
both sides. I care to hear no more of it, nah,
said mister Henderlen. But there's love too, and self denial
(10:41):
that should put the like of you and meat to shame.
There's something fine about it, No, perhaps Christian, but humanly fine.
Even Alan Breck by all that I hear, is a
chield to be respected. There's many a lion's snack draw
sits closing kirk in our own part of the country,
and stands well in the world's eye. And maybe he
(11:02):
is a far worse man, mister Balfour, than yon misguided
shadder of man's blood. II II we might take a
lesson by them. You'll perhaps think I've been too long
in the highlands, he added, smiling to me. I told
him not at all, that I had seen much to
admire among the highlanders. And if he came to that,
(11:23):
mister Campbell himself was a highlander, I said he that's true.
It's a fine blood. And what is the King's agent about,
I asked Colin Campbell, says Handelen, putting his head in
a bees bike. He is to turn the tenants out
by force, I hear, said, I, yes, says he. But
(11:47):
the business is gone back and forth, as folks say.
First James of the Glens rode to Edinburgh and got
some lawyer, a Stewart. In no doubt they all hang
together like bats and a steeple, and had the proceedings staid.
And then Colin Campbell came in again and had the
upper hand before the barons of Exchequer. And now they
(12:07):
tell me the first of the tenants are to flit tomorrow.
It's to begin at Durer under James's very windows, which
doesna seem wise by my humble way of it. Do
you think they'll fight? I asked, Well, says Henderland. They're disarmed,
or supposed to be, for there's still a good deal
(12:28):
of cold iron lying by in quiet places. And then
Colin Campbell has the soldiers coming. But for all that,
if I was his lady wife, I wouldn't be well
pleased till I got him home again. They're queer customers,
the appen Stuarts. I asked if they were worse than
their neighbors. No, they said he And that's the worst
(12:50):
part of it. For if Colin Roy can get his
business done and appen, he has it all to begin
again in the next country which they call Memoir, and
which is one of the countries of the Camerons. He's
King's factor upon both, and from both he has to
drive out the tenants. And indeed, mister Balfour, to be
open with you, it's my belief that if he escapes
(13:12):
the one lot, he'd get his death by the other.
So we continued talking and walking the great part of
the day, until at last mister Hendelen, after expressing his
delight in my company and satisfaction at meeting with a
friend of mister Campbell's, whom says he and would make
the bold to call that sweet singer of our confident
(13:33):
in Zion, propose that I should make a short stage
and lie the night in his house a little beyond Kingerloch.
To say truth, I was overjoyed, for I had no
great desire for John of the Claymore, and since my
double misadventure first with a guide and next with the
gentleman's skipper, I stood in some fear of any highland stranger. Accordingly,
(13:56):
we shook hands upon the bargain and came in the
afternoon to a small house standing alone by the shore
of the line Loch. The sun was already gone from
the desert mountains of Ardgour upon the hither side, but
shone on those of append On the farther. The loch
lay as still as a lake. Only the gulls were
crying round the sides of it, and the whole place
(14:17):
seemed solemn and uncouth. We had no sooner come to
the door of mister Henderlen's dwelling than, to my great surprise,
for I was now used to the politeness of Highlanders.
He burst rudely past me, dashed into the room, bought
up a jar in a small horn spoon, and began
ladling snuff into his nose in most excessive quantities than
(14:40):
he had a hearty fit of sneezing, and looked round
upon me with a rather silly smile. It's a vow
I took, says he. I took a vow upon me
that I would not carry it. Doubtless it's a great privation.
But when I think upon the martyrs, not only to
the Scottish Covenant, but to other points of Christianity, I
think shame to mind it. As soon as we had
(15:04):
eaten and porridge, and why were the best of the
good Man's diet. He took a grave face and said
he had a duty to perform by mister Campbell, and
that was to inquire into my state of mind towards God.
I was inclined to smile at him since the business
of the snuff, but he had not spoken long before
he brought the tears into my eyes. There are two
(15:26):
things that men should never weary of goodness and humility.
We get none too much of them in this rough
world among cold, proud people. But mister Henderland had their
very speech upon his tongue. And though I was a
good deal puffed up with my adventures and with having
come off, as the saying is, with flying colors, yet
(15:48):
he soon had me on my knees beside, a simple,
poor old man, and both proud and glad to be there.
Before we went to bed, he offered me sixpence to
help me on my way out of a ganty's store
he kept in the turf wall of his house, at
which excess of goodness I knew not what to do.
But at last he was so earnest with me that
(16:09):
I thought it the more mannerly part to let him
have his way, and so left him poorer than myself.
End of chapter
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!