Page:History of Duncan Campbell, and his dog Oscar (1).pdf/16

 and if Mary was not the prettiest girl in the parish least Duncan and I believed her to be so, which, us, amounted to the same thing. We often compared the other girls in the parish with one another as their beauty and accomplishments, but to think comparing any of them with Mary, was entirely out of the question. She was, indeed, the emblem of truth, simplicity, and innocence, and if there were more beautiful, there were still fewer so good amiable; but still as she advanced in years, she got fonder and fonder of being near Duncan; and by the time she was nineteen, was so deeply in love, that affected her manner, her spirits, and her health. one time she was gay and frisky as a kitten; would dance, sing, and laugh violently at the trivial incidents. At other times she was silent sad, while a languishing softness overspread her tures, and added greatly to her charms. The pas was undoubtedly mutual between them; but Duncan either, from a sense of honour or some other ca never declared himself farther on the subject. than the most respectful attention and tender assiduite.

About forty years ago the flocks of southern sheep which have since that period inundated the Highlands had not found their way over the Grampian mountains and the native flocks of that sequestered country so scanty, that it was found, necessary to transport small quantities of wool annually to the north, to ish materials for clothing the inhabitants. D two months of each summer, the hill countries o Lowlands were inundated by hundreds of women t{illegible} the Highlands, who bartered small articles of d and of domestic import, for wool: these were known by, the appelation of norlen netties and few passed, during the wool season, that some of  were not lodged at my father’s house. It was two of these that Duncan learned one day wh what he was; that he was the laird of Glenellich