ere journeyman, succeeded in
procuring a piece of work by contract, in a locality about fourteen
miles nearer our home than Conon-side, and I accompanied him to assist
in its completion. Our employment in our new scene of labour was of the
most disagreeable kind. Burns, who must have had a tolerably extensive
experience of the evils of hard work, specifies in his "Twa Dogs" three
kinds of labour in especial that give poor "cot-folk" "fash enough."

"Trowth, Caesar, whiles they're fash'd eneugh;
A cottar howkin' in a sheugh,
Wi' dirty stanes biggin' a dyke.
Baring a quarry, and sic like."

All very disagreeable employments, as I also can testify; and our work
here unfortunately combined the whole three. We were engaged in
rebuilding one of those old-fashioned walls of gentlemen's
pleasure-grounds known as "_ha has_," that line the sides of deep
ditches, and raise their tops to but the level of the sward; and as the
ditch in this special instance was a wet one, and as we had to clear it
of the old fallen materials, and to dig it out for our new line of
foundation, while at the same time we had to furnish ourselves with
additional materials from a neighbouring quarry, we had at once the
"baring of the quarry," the "howkin' in the sheugh," and the "biggin' of
the dyke wi' dirty stanes," to "fash" us. The last-named employment is
by far the most painful and trying. In most kinds of severe labour the
skin thickens, and the hand hardens, through a natural provision, to
suit the requirements of the task imposed, and yield the necessary
protection to the integuments below; but the "dirty stanes" of the
dyke-builder, when wet as well as dirty, try the reproductive powers of
the cuticle too severely, and wear it off, so that under the rough
friction the quick is laid bare. On this occasion, and on at least one
other, when engaged in building in a wet season in the Western
Highlands, I had all my fingers oozing blood at once; and those who
think that in such circumstances labour protracted throughout a long day
can be other than torture, would do well to try. How these poor hands of
mine burnt and beat at night at this time, as if an unhappy heart had
been stationed in every finger! and what cold chills used to run, sudden
as electric shocks, through the feverish frame!

My general health, too, had become far from strong. As I had been almost
entirely engaged in hewing for the two previous seasons, the dust o