MILLER OF HOFBAU . . . By Anthony Hope Hawkins

THE STOLEN BODY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By H. G. Wells

THE LAZARETTE OF THE "HUNTRESS" . . . . . . . . . By W. Clark Russell

THE GREAT TRIANGULAR DUEL . . . . . . . By Captain Frederick Marryat

THREE THIMBLES AND A PEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . By George Borrow

THE TWO DROVERS

By SIR WALTER SCOTT

CHAPTER I

It was the day after Donne Fair when my story commences. It had been a
brisk market: several dealers had attended from the northern and
midland counties in England, and English money had flown so merrily
about as to gladden the hearts of the Highland farmers. Many large
droves were about to set off for England, under the protection of their
owners, or of the topsmen whom they employed in the tedious, laborious,
and responsible office of driving the cattle for many hundred miles,
from the market where they had been purchased to the fields or
farm-yards where they were to be fattened for the shambles.

The Highlanders in particular are masters of this difficult trade of
driving, which seems to suit them as well as the trade of war. It
affords exercise for all their habits of patient endurance and active
exertion. They are required to know perfectly the drove-roads, which
lie over the wildest tracts of the country, and to avoid as much as
possible the highways, which distress the feet of the bullocks, and the
turnpikes, which annoy the spirit of the drover; whereas on the broad
green or grey track, which leads across the pathless moor, the herd not
only move at ease and without taxation, but, if they mind their
business, may pick up a mouthful of food by the way. At night, the
drovers usually sleep along with their cattle, let the weather be what
it will; and many of these hardy men do not once rest under a roof
during a journey on foot from Lochaber to Lincolnshire. They are paid
very highly, for the trust reposed is of the last importance, as it
depends on their prudence, vigilance, and honesty whether the cattle
reach the final market in good order, and afford a profit to the
grazier. But, as they maintain themselves at their own expense, they
are especially economical in that particular. At the period we speak
of, a Highland drover was victualled for his long and toilsome journey
with a few handfuls of oatmeal and two or three onions, renewed from
time to time, and a ram's horn filled with whisky, which he used
regu