always; and as the men have to cook by turns, with only half an hour or
so given them in which to light a fire, and prepare the meal for a dozen
or twenty associates, the cooking is invariably an exceedingly rough and
simple affair. I have known mason-parties engaged in the central
Highlands in building bridges, not unfrequently reduced, by a tract of
wet weather, that soaked their only fuel the turf, and rendered it
incombustible, to the extremity of eating their oatmeal raw, and merely
moistened by a little water, scooped by the hand from a neighbouring
brook. I have oftener than once seen our own supply of salt fail us; and
after relief had been afforded by a Highland smuggler--for there was
much smuggling in salt in those days, ere the repeal of the duties--I
have heard a complaint from a young fellow regarding the hardness of our
fare, at once checked by a comrade's asking him whether he was not an
ungrateful dog to grumble in that way, seeing that, after living on
fresh poultices for a week, we had actually that morning got porridge
with salt in it. One marked effect of the annual change which the
north-country mason has to undergo, from a life of domestic comfort to a
life of hardship in the bothy, if he has not passed middle life, is a
great apparent increase in his animal spirits. At home he is in all
probability a quiet, rather dull-looking personage, not much given to
laugh or joke; whereas in the bothy, if the squad be a large one, he
becomes wild, and a humorist--laughs much, and grows ingenious in
playing off pranks on his fellows. As in all other communities, there
are certain laws recognised in the barrack as useful for controlling at
least its younger members, the apprentices; but in the general tone of
merriment, even these lose their character, and, ceasing to be a terror
to evildoers, become in the execution mere occasions of mirth. I never,
in all my experience, saw a serious punishment inflicted. Shortly after
our arrival at Conon-side, my master, chancing to remark that he had not
wrought as a journeyman for twenty-five years before, was voted a
"ramming," for taking, as was said, such high ground with his brother
workmen; but, though sentence was immediately executed, they dealt
gently with the old man, who had good sense enough to acquiesce in the
whole as a joke. And yet, amid all this wild merriment and license,
there was not a workman who did not regret the comforts of his quiet
home, and long