lready so unsuited to that rough sea-
side farm.

'She cam' ashore Februar' 10, about ten at nicht,' he went on to me.
'There was nae wind, and a sair run o' sea; and she was in the sook o'
the Roost, as I jaloose. We had seen her a' day, Rorie and me, beating
to the wind. She wasnae a handy craft, I'm thinking, that _Christ-Anna_;
for she would neither steer nor stey wi' them. A sair day they had of
it; their hands was never aff the sheets, and it perishin' cauld--ower
cauld to snaw; and aye they would get a bit nip o' wind, and awa' again,
to pit the emp'y hope into them. Eh, man! but they had a sair day for
the last o't! He would have had a prood, prood heart that won ashore
upon the back o' that.'

'And were all lost?' I cried. 'God held them!'

'Wheesht!' he said sternly. 'Nane shall pray for the deid on my hearth-
stane.'

I disclaimed a Popish sense for my ejaculation; and he seemed to accept
my disclaimer with unusual facility, and ran on once more upon what had
evidently become a favourite subject.

'We fand her in Sandag Bay, Rorie an' me, and a' thae braws in the inside
of her. There's a kittle bit, ye see, about Sandag; whiles the sook rins
strong for the Merry Men; an' whiles again, when the tide's makin' hard
an' ye can hear the Roost blawin' at the far-end of Aros, there comes a
back-spang of current straucht into Sandag Bay. Weel, there's the thing
that got the grip on the _Christ-Anna_. She but to have come in ram-stam
an' stern forrit; for the bows of her are aften under, and the back-side
of her is clear at hie-water o' neaps. But, man! the dunt that she cam
doon wi' when she struck! Lord save us a'! but it's an unco life to be a
sailor--a cauld, wanchancy life. Mony's the gliff I got mysel' in the
great deep; and why the Lord should hae made yon unco water is mair than
ever I could win to understand. He made the vales and the pastures, the
bonny green yaird, the halesome, canty land--

And now they shout and sing to Thee,
For Thou hast made them glad,

as the Psalms say in the metrical version. No that I would preen my
faith to that clink neither; but it's bonny, and easier to mind. "Who go
to sea in ships," they hae't again--

And in
Great waters trading be,
Within the deep these men God's works
And His great wonders see.

Weel, it's easy sayin' sae. Maybe Dauvit wasnae very weel acquant wi'
the sea. But, troth, if it wasnae prentit in