een a white horse coming on in the dark,
while they did not observe the bay, and may thus have been led to
suppose there was only one man. As the boxes were laid aside, I have no
doubt they intended a robbery, though this did not strike me at the
time. But our troubles were not yet at an end; at the same old Castle
of Barra, Thom, still in advance, called out, "_The wife, the cows,
and the ropes again!_" He had just time to save his distance, and
save me too.

The ninety-nine beasts turned out to be only ninety-five (they were no
great spec after all, leaving only L45 of profit). Thom had booked four
he had never bought; and when the lot was counted to be joined to the
drove, they would not number more than ninety-five. I advertised for
them, and had a man in Buchan a week searching for them; and when I
told Thom in Edinburgh that they could not be found, he confessed he
had never bought them.

I am not sure if it was the same year we had come up to Edinburgh the
Saturday night before Hallow Fair. We were rather late in getting ready
to go to church. I had heard a great deal about Dr Muir as a preacher,
and we went to hear him; but not being very certain of the church, we
inquired at a gentleman's servant, dressed in splendid livery, very
civilly, the way to Dr Muir's church. Instead of giving a civil reply,
"Oh," he said, "Aberdeen awa'!" Thom, who was very impulsive, came
across the side of the fellow's head with his umbrella, and laid him
flat on his back in the middle of the street, with his heels in the
air. I made no remark, Thom said as little, but walked on as if nothing
had happened. We heard our friend calling after us he would have his
revenge; I hope it was a lesson to him to be civil in future.

I sent for many years sixty horned cattle in spring to Mr Buist,
Tynninghame. They were grazed in Tynninghame Park, and he also required
other forty or sixty during the season for house-feeding. I only gave
up the commission business when I could carry it out no longer to my
satisfaction and to the advantage of my employers. For years after I
went to the Falkirk markets there was not a white beast to be seen; but
by-and-by Irish-bred cattle appeared, and then the Shorthorns. The
business of dealing in north-country cattle came to be worthless. I
bade Falkirk adieu, and turned my attention entirely to the rearing and
fattening of cattle at home. I gave up the fascinating business of a
lean-cattle jobber, seeing it