Page:History of Duncan Campbell, and his dog, Oscar (1).pdf/8

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there is a ſpace here which it is impoſſible to relate with any degree of distinctness or interest. He was a vagabond boy, without any fixed habitation, and wan- dering about Herriet Moor, from one farm house to another, for the space of a year; ſtaying from one to twenty nichts in each houſe, according as he found the people kind to him, He seldom resented any indignity offered to himself, but whoever insulted Os- car, or off any obſervations on the impropriety of their friends.. sp, lost Duncan's company next morning, He ſtaid ſeveral months at a place called Dewar, which he ſaid was haunted by the ghoſt of a piper that piper had been murdered there many years before, in a manner ſome what myſterious, or at leaſt unaccounta- ble; and there was ſcarcely a night on which he was suppose feither to be ſeen or beard about the houſe. Duncan ſlept in the cow houſe, and was terribly ha- rased by the pier, he often beard him ſcratching about the rafters, and sometimes he would groan like a man dying, or a cow that was choaked in the band ; but at length he ſaw him at his side one night, which ſo dif- composed him that he was obliged to leave the place, after being ill for many days. I fall give this ſtory in Duncan's own words, which I have often heard him repeat without any variation. I had been driving some young cattle to the heigts of Willenslie--it grew late before I got home. I was thinking, and thinking, how cruel it was to kill the poor piper ! to cut out his tongue, and ſtab him in the back I thought it was no wonder that his ghoſt took it extremely ill; when, all on a ſudden, I per- ceived a light before me ;-I thought the wand in my hand was all on fire, and threw it away, but I perceiv- ed the light glide slowly by my right foot, and burn behind me; - I was nothing afraid, and turned about to look at the light, and there I saw the piper, who was standing hard at my back, and when I turned round, be looked me in the face.” " What was he