his large jack-booted legs under the table, his formidable dress, and bulky figure, presenting a very whimsical appearance, sunk as it was upon the creepy, as he called it, with only his head and shoulders appearing above board.

Whilst they were waiting for the eatables, and talking about indifferent matters, Amherst perceived the light proceeding from the little window to be suddenly diminished, as if some object had approached it on the outside. He commanded a full view of it over Lochandhu's head, and involuntarily started, for, to his no small astonishment, he beheld the hideous face of the Dwarfie Carline o' the Cove. She gazed at him for some moments, with a fixed and freezing look. Lochandhu observed his emotion, and was in the act of turning round to discover what gave rise to it. The mysterious female seemed to guess his purpose. Her eyes assumed an extraordinary fire of intelligence, and putting her long bony fingers upon her skinny lips, she looked towards Lochandhu, and shooting a penetrating glance at Amherst, she instantaneously disappeared, long before his companion, hampered as he was, could effect his change of posture.

See

ing nothing at the window, he again turned towards Amherst, who, struck with the earnest manner of the signal, and judging it prudent to conceal the circumstance from his companion, had by this time clapped his hand to his head, as if attacked by some sudden pain.

"I hope there is nothing the matter with you, Mr Oakenwold ?" said Lochandhu, with an air of alarm.

"Nothing very material," replied Amherst. "A sudden twinge of megrim, to which I am frequently subject."

66

Emptiness of stomach, I daresay,” replied Lochandhu ; you will be better after eating something ;" and rising, with considerable exertion, he hastened to the door, and transmitted a long and deep-toned sentence of Gaelic along the dark funnel of the passage, that was immediately replied to from the other end of the sod edifice, by the shrill clamouring voice of the hostess.

"Aye, aye," said he, after listening to what she had said, and resuming his seat, "she'll be here directly."

Accordingly, in a few minutes she came trotting

along the passage, preceded by a savoury steam issuing from a large wooden dish she carried, and which half obscured her person as she entered. It was put upon the table, but it was as speedily removed, and placed on one of the stools, for something had been forgotten. She ran off, and returned with a towel, with which she covered the table. Then she went for knives and forks, and oatencakes, and salt,-all of which were to be sought for, before the chief part of the entertainment was restored to its proper situation.

"The venison" of which Mr Macphie had spoken, turned out to be a hare, cut down into fragments, and dressed with a very palatable sauce, made of the blood of the animal, seasoned with pepper and onions. During the meal, Amherst could not banish from his mind the strange spectre he had seen; and glancing more than once at the window, he almost expected to see the hideous face still occupying it.

Having finished their meal, Lochandhu called for the horses. Mrs Macphie waited at the door, dressed, in compliment to the gentlemen,

in a high cap. Lochandhu anticipated Amherst, by paying her demands. The young

Englishman drew a heavy purse from his pocket, and gave her, as a douceur, enough to have paid three such bills, and her courtesy at once expressed her surprise and satisfaction. A Highlander, who was standing talking to Hamish, greedily eyed the golden treasure peeping through the meshes of the purse. The indolent landlord seemed to have remained in the same place and posture they had found him on their arrival. Nor did he move from the spot now, but bowing his back from the wall, with much dignity, he wished them a pleasant ride.

The travellers now crossed the river, by a narrow high arched bridge, and pursued their way for many miles through a deep forest of very large firs, sown by the hand of Nature herself, and exhibiting, in the bold bendings of their stems, and the wild luxuriance of their branches, all that freedom of growth in vain sought for in the formal modern plantations of the tree. Here they appeared like natives of the soil.

The surface of the ground they grew on was varied with knolls and banks, and hills, and hollows, covered with the glossy leaves of the trailing arbutus,— and in the more open parts, the high tops of the

distant Cairngorums broke upon the view, the dark green masses of the foliage, being richly relieved against the pure white of their snowy sum

mits.

About six or eight miles of travel brought them into the great Strath of the Spey, where are the districts of Rothiemurchus and Badenoch. The magnificent scale that nature now appeared in, the breadth of the valley,-the noble stream by which it is watered, the grandeur of the mountains bounding it,—the immensity of its natural forests, the beauty of its numerous little lakes, every now and then bursting upon the eye, or seen glittering through the foliage, as they wound among the knolls of weeping birches,the lovely form and rich green of some of those isolated hills, rising in the middle of the landscape, the rocks hung with woods, together with a thousand more minute charms unfolding themselves at every turn, called forth Amherst's admiration, and filled his mind with sensations he had never before experienced.

--

The sun was on the eve of going down as they entered a birch wood, through which they urged on their horses, with as much speed as the nature