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He
saw
his
duty
cleared
from
all
doubts
,
and
there
must
have
been
that
in
his
face
which
told
of
his
thoughts
,
for
men
greeted
him
and
then
passed
on
,
as
if
unwilling
to
break
in
on
his
preoccupation
.
Only
Reiverslaw
,
who
was
on
his
way
to
Lucky
Weir
’
s
,
whence
he
would
depart
drunk
in
the
small
hours
,
was
obtuse
in
his
perceptions
.
He
took
the
minister
’
s
hand
and
shook
it
as
he
would
a
drover
’
s
at
a
fair
,
seemed
anxious
to
speak
,
found
no
words
,
and
left
with
a
grunted
farewell
.
It
was
a
fine
,
long
-
drawn
-
out
back
-
end
,
the
best
that
had
been
known
for
twenty
years
.
All
September
the
sun
shone
like
June
,
and
it
was
well
into
October
before
the
morning
frosts
began
,
and
the
third
week
of
November
before
the
snow
came
.
The
little
crops
-
-
chiefly
grey
oats
and
barley
,
with
an
occasional
rig
of
peas
and
flax
-
-
were
well
ripened
and
quickly
reaped
.
The
nettie
-
wives
were
busy
all
day
in
the
fields
,
and
the
barefoot
children
made
the
leading
in
of
the
harvest
a
holiday
,
with
straw
whistles
in
their
mouths
and
fantastic
straw
badges
on
their
clothing
.
Then
came
the
threshing
with
jointed
flails
,
and
the
winnowing
on
barn
roofs
when
the
first
east
winds
blew
.
There
were
no
gleaners
in
the
empty
stubbles
,
for
it
was
held
a
pious
duty
to
leave
something
behind
for
the
fowls
of
the
air
.
Presently
the
scanty
fruits
of
the
earth
were
under
cover
,
the
bog
hay
in
dwarfish
ricks
,
the
unthreshed
oats
and
bear
in
the
barns
,
the
grain
in
the
girnels
,
and
soon
the
wheel
of
the
Woodilee
mill
was
clacking
merrily
to
grind
the
winter
’
s
meal
.
In
that
parish
the
burden
of
the
laird
lay
light
.
Nicholas
Hawkshaw
asked
no
more
than
his
modest
rental
in
kind
,
and
did
not
exact
his
due
in
labour
,
but
for
a
week
the
road
by
the
back
of
the
Hill
of
Deer
saw
a
procession
of
horses
carrying
the
"
kain
"
meal
to
the
Calidon
granary
.
As
the
minister
watched
the
sight
one
day
,
Ephraim
Caird
,
the
Chasehope
tenant
,
stood
beside
him
,
looking
gloomily
at
his
own
beasts
returning
.
"
That
’
s
the
way
our
puir
crops
are
guided
,
"
he
said
.
"
As
the
auld
folk
used
to
say
,
’
Ane
part
to
saw
,
ane
part
to
gnaw
,
and
ane
to
pay
the
laird
witha
’
.
’
"
His
eyes
showed
that
he
had
no
love
for
Calidon
.
Hallowmass
that
year
was
a
cheerful
season
.
The
elders
shook
their
heads
at
the
Hallowe
’
en
junketings
,
and
the
severe
Chasehope
was
strong
in
his
condemnation
.
But
on
the
night
of
Hallowe
’
en
,
as
David
walked
in
the
bright
moonlight
and
saw
the
lights
in
the
cottages
and
heard
laughter
and
a
jigging
of
fiddles
,
he
did
not
find
it
in
his
heart
to
condemn
the
ancient
fashions
.
Nor
apparently
did
Chasehope
himself
,
for
David
was
much
mistaken
if
it
was
not
Ephraim
’
s
great
shoulders
and
fiery
head
that
he
saw
among
the
cabbage
-
stalks
in
Nance
Kello
’
s
garden
.
He
had
been
to
Hallowe
’
en
frolics
himself
in
past
days
when
he
stayed
with
his
cousin
at
Newbiggin
,
but
it
seemed
to
him
that
here
in
Woodilee
there
was
something
oppressed
and
furtive
in
the
merriment
.
There
was
a
secrecy
about
each
lit
dwelling
,
and
no
sign
of
young
lads
and
lasses
laughing
on
the
roads
.
He
noticed
,
too
,
that
for
the
next
few
days
many
of
the
people
had
a
look
of
profound
weariness
-
-
pale
faces
,
tired
eyes
,
stealthy
glances
-
-
as
if
behind
the
apparent
decorum
there
had
been
revels
that
exhausted
soul
and
body
.
With
the
reaping
of
the
harvest
the
ill
-
conditioned
cattle
were
brought
from
the
hills
to
the
stubbles
,
and
soon
turned
both
outfield
and
infield
into
a
miry
wilderness
.
David
,
whose
knowledge
of
farming
was
derived
chiefly
from
the
Georgics
,
had
yet
an
eye
in
his
head
and
a
store
of
common
sense
,
and
he
puzzled
at
the
methods
.
The
land
at
its
best
was
ill
-
drained
,
and
the
trampling
of
beasts
made
a
thousand
hollows
which
would
be
puddles
at
the
first
rains
and
would
further
sour
the
rank
soil
.
But
when
he
spoke
on
the
matter
to
the
farmer
of
Mirehope
,
he
was
answered
scornfully
that
that
had
been
the
"
auld
way
of
the
land
,
"
and
that
those
who
were
proud
in
their
own
conceit
and
had
tried
new
-
fangled
methods
-
-
he
had
heard
word
of
such
in
the
West
country
-
-
could
not
get
two
bolls
from
an
acre
where
he
had
four
.
"
And
Mirehope
’
s
but
wersh
[
sour
]
land
,
sir
,
and
not
to
be
named
wi
’
the
Clyde
howms
.
"
When
the
November
snows
came
all
live
stock
was
gathered
into
the
farm
-
towns
.
The
cattle
were
penned
in
yards
with
thatched
shelters
,
and
soon
turned
them
into
seas
of
mud
.
The
milking
cows
were
in
the
byre
;
the
sheep
in
paddocks
near
-
by
:
the
draught
-
oxen
and
the
horses
in
miserable
stables
of
mud
and
heather
.
It
was
the
beginning
of
the
winter
hibernation
,
and
the
chief
work
of
the
farms
was
the
feeding
of
the
stock
on
their
scanty
winter
rations
.
The
hay
-
-
coarse
bog
grasses
with
little
nutriment
in
them
-
-
went
mainly
to
the
sheep
;
horses
and
cattle
had
for
fodder
straw
and
messes
of
boiled
chaff
;
while
Crummie
in
the
byre
was
sometimes
regaled
with
the
débris
of
the
kailyard
and
the
oddments
left
from
the
family
meals
.
Winter
each
year
was
both
for
beast
and
man
a
struggle
with
famine
,
and
each
was
rationed
like
the
people
of
a
besieged
city
.
But
if
food
was
scarce
at
the
best
,
Woodilee
did
not
want
for
fuel
.
It
had
been
a
good
year
for
peats
,
for
they
had
ripened
well
on
the
hills
,
and
the
open
autumn
had
made
them
easy
to
carry
.
Each
cottage
had
its
ample
peat
-
stack
,
and
when
harvest
was
over
there
had
been
also
a
great
gathering
of
windfalls
from
the
woods
,
so
that
by
every
door
stood
a
pile
of
kindlings
.
Melanudrigill
in
the
bright
October
days
had
lost
its
menace
for
David
.
He
had
no
occasion
to
visit
it
by
night
,
but
more
than
once
he
rode
through
it
by
day
on
his
pastoral
visitations
to
Fennan
or
the
Rood
valley
,
and
once
in
a
flaming
sunset
he
returned
that
way
from
Kirk
Aller
.
The
bracken
was
golden
in
decay
,
and
the
yellowing
birches
,
the
russet
thorns
,
and
the
occasional
scarlet
of
rowans
made
the
sombre
place
almost
cheerful
.
In
his
walks
on
the
hill
the
great
forest
below
him
seemed
to
have
grown
thin
and
open
,
no
longer
a
vast
enveloping
cloak
,
but
a
kindly
covering
for
the
ribs
of
earth
.
Some
potency
had
gone
from
it
with
the
summer
,
as
if
the
tides
of
a
fierce
life
had
sunk
back
into
the
ground
again
.
He
had
seen
deer
in
the
glades
,
and
they
looked
innocent
things
.
But
he
noticed
as
curious
that
none
of
the
villagers
in
their
quest
for
wood
penetrated
far
into
it
,
and
that
on
its
fringes
they
only
gathered
the
windfalls
.
Up
at
the
back
of
the
Hill
of
Deer
and
in
the
Rood
glen
men
were
busy
all
day
cutting
birch
and
hazel
billets
,
but
no
axe
was
laid
to
any
tree
in
the
Black
Wood
.
