Page:The Bothie of Toper-na-fuosich - Clough (1848).pdf/11

 This was his title from Adam, but mostly they called him the Piper. Lindsay succeeded, the lively, the cheery, cigar-loving Lindsay.
 * Hewson and Hobbes were down at the matutine bathing; of course too

Arthur Audley, the bather par excellence, glory of headers, Arthur they called him for love and for euphony; so were they bathing, There where in mornings was custom, where over a ledge of granite Into a granite bason descended the amber torrent. There were they bathing and dressing; it was but a step from the cottage, Only the road and larches and ruinous millstead between. Hewson and Hobbes followed quick upon Adam; on them followed Arthur.
 * Airlie descended the last, splendescent as god of Olympus;

Blue, half-doubtfully blue, was the coat that had white silk facings, Waistcoat blue, coral-buttoned, the white-tie finely adjusted, Coral moreover the studs on a shirt as of crochet of women: When for ten minutes already the fourwheel had stood at the gateway, He, like a god, came leaving his ample Olympian chamber.
 * And in the fourwheel they drove to the place of the clansmen's meeting.
 * So in the fourwheel they came; and Donald the innkeeper showed them

Up to the barn where the dinner should be. Four tables were in it; Two at the top and the bottom, a little upraised from the level, These for Chairman and Croupier, and gentry fit to be with them, Two lengthways in the midst for keeper and gillie and peasant. Here were clansmen many in kilt and bonnet assembled; Keepers a dozen at least; the Marquis's targeted gillies; Pipers five or six, among them the young one, the drunkard; Many with silver brooches, and some with those brilliant crystals Found amid granite-dust on the frosty scalp of the Cairn-Gorm; But with snuff-boxes all, and all their boxes using. Here too were Catholic Priest, and Established Minister standing, One to say grace before, the other after the dinner; Catholic Priest; for many still clung to the Ancient Worship, And Sir Hector's father himself had built them a chapel; So stood Priest and Minister, near to each other, but silent, One to say grace before, the other after the dinner. Hither anon too came the shrewd, ever-ciphering Factor, Hither anon the Attaché, the Guardsman mute and stately, Hither from lodge and bothie in all the adjoining shootings Members of Parliament many, forgetful of votes and blue books, Here, amid heathery hills, upon beast and bird of the forest,