rang
in his ears as the punch-bowl went round, even to the dawning of the
day. Neither M'Donald nor Haddoch knew my father was in the house. He
left in the morning for Clashbrae, where he bought some smaller lots
from the farmer there, who was a local dealer.

A word as to M'Donald: He was a stout-made middle-sized man, and spoke
so fast over the "bowl" that no one could follow him. He had a good
deal of mother-wit; and his great ambition was to be the owner of large
droves of cattle. I have seen a drove belonging to him a mile and more
long. Mr John Geddes was a man of high standing and great firmness of
character. He wore the broad blue bonnet, with a long blue coat and
clear buttons, and boot-hose, and rode a very fine cob pony with a long
tail. He was of great strength of constitution, and could have sat
twenty-four hours with the punch-bowl before him (it was always the
bowl at Haddoch), and risen as sober as when he sat down. Such were the
habits of those days. I never pass on the railway from Huntly to
Rothiemay, but on casting my eye over the old house I recall the night
described so graphically by my father. He and Haddoch had large
transactions. After a bad October Tryst, where my father had sixteen
score of Aberdeenshire cattle, and when he lost L4 a-head upon every
beast, Mr Geddes returned him L70 as a luck-penny upon a large lot he
had bought from him. There have few men appeared in the north of
greater influence or of higher moral worth than the late Mr John Geddes
of Haddoch. His landlord, the late Duke of Gordon, was proud of him, as
well he might be.

It was the general custom that the dealers came to the market-ground
with their cattle, and immediately before them, to the part of the
market-stance where they wished them to stand. It was quite a sight to
see Mr Geddes on an Old Keith market-day (Old Keith Market, like Aikey
Fair, is now only a shadow of its ancient greatness), with his broad
bonnet, the long blue coat, the overall stockings, and mounted on a
strong bay pony with its tail to the ground, at the head of a large lot
of heavy cattle. Every one made room for his cattle, as he rode before
them to the upper wall; it would have been of no use to resist, as the
weight of his animals would have soon cleared the road for themselves;
and as soon as the large black mass of horned cattle appeared in the
valley below, the cry was, "There comes Haddoch! We must clear the way,
or else his cattle will