mains unsatisfied. So utterly ignorant is she, indeed, of my motions, that if death should chance to arrest me in the midst of my wanderings, I shall probably be buried by strangers, unknown and unwept, in the spot where I am stricken down; and then Mrs Gladstanes will be left to wonder and guess at the fate that prevents my periodical return. But here I am, safe for this season at least, installed in the full comfort of my old morocco chair, with my mind so full of interesting matter, that I must have a book of my own to put it into.-But before I give it you, Sir, I will tell you how I came by it.

I happened to be wandering on foot through the grand pass of the Grampians, when I overtook a respectable looking old man with a grey head, and a hale, though weather-beaten face, who had seated himself on the parapet of a bridge, a few

miles from the inn of Dalwhinnie. Though averse to anything like general intercourse with mankind, my heart warms to a solitary mortal like myself, especially when I meet him, as I thus did Johnny Fimister, as he called himself, in one of nature's wild and lonely mountain scenes, where man feels himself but as a speck amidst the grandeur of her works. I sat down by him, and after we had made acquaintance by a friendly pinch of snuff, and some remarks upon the weather, we set out on our travel together. I was not inquisitive, but Johnny showed every desire to be communicative, and made the road so short, as the saying is, by his stories, that we reached the place of rest and refreshment, ere we had, as I thought, gone half way.

As we entered the court-yard of the inn, we observed a tall, and very bulky old man, in enormous jack-boots, with a great

queue hanging over the capes of a blue surtout, who was in the act of mounting a powerful horse. The pedlar made two or three hasty steps forwards, and looked up in the rider's face, as he was adjusting himself on the saddle, and then returned, as if he had been mistaken in his man, and the horseman rode slowly away, without noticing him.

I had already made up my mind to ask the old pedlar to sup with me; and as he heard me order a nice dish of Loch Ericht trouts to be fried, and a couple of fowls to be split open and broiled, he very readily accepted my invitation. Little was said during the meal, both of us being too much occupied to talk. After it was over, without speaking, I gently pushed the punchladle, and the whisky and materials, over to his side of the table, with a nod and a sign. He comprehended me at once, and,

without losing a moment, mixed a bowl with most scientific precision. It was nectar; and lighting my segar, I spent the evening in luxurious ease and silence, listening to the ceaseless chat of my new acquaintance, who read all my shrugs and nods of reply with admirable tact, rarely putting me to the necessity of using my unwilling organs of speech, even in a monosyllable.

"I saw you looked strange at me, Sir,” said he, "when I glower'd yon gate, at yon auld carle on the brown naig. Troth I thought, for a gliff, that he was a man I aince see'd here about fifeteen or aughteen years syne. He was vera like him, and he was mounted upon just sic a like beast; and as I cam lampin into the yaird that day, for I'm no athegither sae souple noo as I was than, he was just ridin' away after the same fashion yon yane did. But

yon canna be him, after a', for he maun be dead mony a day syne."

A long draught of smoke, treasured up within my cheeks, and accompanied by a look of inquiry, told him I wished him to explain to whom he alluded.

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Aye Sir, ye want to ken wha it was I saw at that time I'm speakin' o'. Troth it was nae less than the Laird o' Lochandhu that was. Every body believed it to be him. And wha else could it be? -for he was nae stranger, and kent a' the nooks and corners o' baith Badenoch and Strathspey. He gaed about a'where, an' mony a question he put about the auld fouk o' his ain day. But maist o' them ware dead. He was seen to shed mony a tear. At length he rode awa' again, and naebody kent whare he gaed."

"And who was Lochandhu?" said I,