oacher,
and which in stormy nights, when the cry of the kelpie mingled with the
roar of the flood, must have been a sublime lodge in the wilderness, in
which a poet might have delighted to dwell. I was excited by the scene;
and, when heedlessly leaping from a tall lichened stone into the long
heath below, my right foot came so heavily in contact with a sharp-edged
fragment of rock concealed in the moss, that I almost screamed aloud
with pain. I, however, suppressed the shriek, and, sitting down and
setting my teeth close, bore the pang, until it gradually moderated, and
my foot, to the ankle, seemed as if almost divested of feeling. In our
return, I halted as I walked, and lagged considerably behind my
companions; and during the whole evening the injured foot seemed as if
dead, save that it glowed with an intense heat. I was, however, at ease
enough to write a sublime piece of blank verse on the cataract; and,
proud of my production, I attempted reading it to Cousin William. But
William had taken lessons in recitation under the great Mr. Thelwall,
politician and elocutionist; and deeming it proper to set me right in
all the words which I mispronounced--three out of every four at least,
and not unfrequently the fourth word also--the reading of the piece
proved greatly stiffer and slower work than the writing of it; and,
somewhat to my mortification, my cousin declined giving me any definite
judgment on its merits, even when I had done. He insisted, however, on
the signal advantages of reading well. He had an acquaintance, he said,
a poet, who had taken lessons under Mr. Thelwall, and who, though his
verses, when he published, met with no great success, was so indebted to
his admirable elocution, as to be invariably successful when he read
them to his friends.

Next morning my injured foot was stiff and sore; and, after a few days
of suffering, it suppurated and discharged great quantities of blood and
matter. It was, however, fast getting well again, when, tired of
inaction, and stirred up by my cousin Walter, who wearied sadly of the
Highlands, I set out with him, contrary to all advice, on my homeward
journey, and, for the first six or eight miles, got on tolerably well.
My cousin, a stout, active lad, carried the bag of Highland
luxuries--cheese, and butter, and a full peck of nuts--with which we had
been laden by my aunt; and, by way of indemnity for taking both my share
of the burden and his own, he demanded of me o