At a Highland Hut.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 39, 8 April 1875, Page 7

At a Highland Hut.

>.Leaning against the door-post, and feeding Diarmid the.ppny.with the oatcake he so much fancies, I am enjojang at once the friendly way in which we are all living together, and the grand, and — with its variety of color, purple heather, green foliage^ and golden corn, its radiance of sunlight, aud picturesqueness. of shadow — magically beautiful scene of this our little community. - ,

Bonny Jean is milking- Maoley before the door, Tvhile the other cow stands waiting- her turn, cross and impatient by reason of her full udder, and the summer-flies ; the collie is amusing himself barking- at" the stirks and calves, and biting- their ears ; Diarmid, whose social instinuts have.- brought him in from the. solitude of half-dozen miles of commonade in the Forest, stands hinnying for another piece of oatcake; Bonny Jean's youngest bairn is courageously defending- herself from a bold and greedy hen, ; . thai is pertinaciously endeavoring 1 to get but of her hand the piece of bread with which her . mother is trying to quiet her for a time ; and a grey kitten sits- winking- in the sun^ on one of the projecting- stones that form the lower course of the wall of the cottage. Suddenly, Oscar, for so the collie is named, finds this kitten's corrtplacency too "provoking," and maTtesT a dartf at "hex..-.. . She r , -spitting feminine fury, threatens him with her claws; he, making as. if. he would bring down his paw en her, whines as if to say, *' Why can't you let. us play, without being so vixenish V but she, ;poor little thing, is : too weak ;tb • -be gbod-'humbfed ;• ' and he humorously terminates- the. skirmish by quietly • sitting* down' upon her. On the" right runs a tinkling,._burn, seperatihg the green, and p.uitivated"h'i I" on which the 'cottage stands from_.the Heather-purpled-'mounfaipK^ot'he'icene a ; birch-emboweiiied> fountains contributes its overflow. And-thmigh -it is itself 1500 feet above the sea, : it is good two. miles from the-highest of Highland huts to the summit of the mountain. On the left, ahdi all- around the back ofthe'co- ; tage,.a.birchrwood shields it a little from the bittec winds from the east; and' the north.. At the foot pf. the -green in front \are..ttifi burn, the stable, and the ..^jrGjjmcL the_COML-ya,i!d r -w.here often,' when the harvest has been^ late, hands 1 scarce, and; wintry tempests gathering, I have helped! to. .get the stacks built. Farther down are the fields,, but much; broken up by the dark trees and rocks that still give meaning to the name of Knochan-dhu. Some five hundred feet'; below where Bonny Jean. is -milking is! the bottom of the narrow glen, with; its rapid stream winding so tortuously; through meadows and corn fields, that 1 that they are now all on this side, and, now all on that. And opposite me, asj I stand here, is a vast steep surface of! , mounjfcain, ;g)pwing;with lieajhjer : . in'/ih'e j 1 glory of its bib-aim „. A craggy pine- j clad) hilli-; standings, out Aom. the re"ft>; terminates /this long. ; wall like: a great; tower; and the. riarpow glen at .our.fpet fajls with! .its rapid stream, into a wider I strath : larg-e r^ver,'; and-f on . |he, other sido;<>f which'i and.at right angles '. to the mouth of our gleni rises thQWin I group of^mbuntains. 1 At'the juiidp6n: of. the. two^yal^eyfe'rth'er^e has been, from tbe earliest- times of ..the Scottish imdnarchy,. a.< castle, hunting-seat- partly, :jtod...jpartly\,StJong|iol|i. ' But though _many _national t^dit^n|j|ajQd jpictarerto ,ope,-self many barbaric seen eg', from the time of EenL neth the Hardy in tha ninth> and Mall (^lra:^.reatJieao!. 7 /in;ith:©L releteiiih.ceir!tury, to thiliMvthgvJ^s^^e 6^^ 6 rebel " .lions;, standiug, amid j;hel sympathies of 'such aygroupasthatjat^e dpor^of my Highland hut, breathing air exnilaratl ingK^s^n^pi^ i n^ian.,draugnt,,an4 wid .a/yarifldigTandeur and beauty ofhature; 'ibfinrtel^-musical -^kfJ '^s?j^ty>l!§nj[W %^^,% ( 4e^,>F??%Ql%^^^t^a^^ rec»l.' ftjbieyeui yet-more ibarbarous past; - j:i J , ; ' r: