the shuttle and smiled like creish.

"God be guid to us," says Tam Dale, "this is no canny!"

He had jimp said the word, when Tod Lapraik cam to himsel'.

"Is this you, Tam?" says he. "Haith, man! I'm blythe to see ye. I whiles
fa' into a bit dwam like this," he says; "it's frae the stamach."

Weel, they began to crack about the Bass and which of them twa was to
get the warding o't, and by little and little cam to very ill words, and
twined in anger. I mind weel, that as my faither and me gaed hame again,
he cam ower and ower the same expression, how little he likit Tod
Lapraik and his dwams.

"Dwam!" says he. "I think folk hae brunt far dwams like yon."

Aweel, my faither got the Bass and Tod had to go wantin'. It was
remembered sinsyne what way he had ta'en the thing. "Tam," says he, "ye
hae gotten the better o'me aince mair, and I hope," says he, "ye'll find
at least a' that ye expeckit at the Bass." Which have since been thought
remarkable expressions. At last the time came for Tam Dale to take young
solans. This was a business he was weel used wi', he had been a
craigsman frae a laddie, and trustit nane but himsel'. So there was he
hingin' by a line an' speldering on the craig face, whaur it's hieest
and steighest. Fower tenty lads were on the tap, hauldin' the line and
mindin' for his signals. But whaur Tam hung there was naething but the
craig, and the sea belaw, and the solans skirling and flying. It was a
braw spring morn, and Tam whustled as he claught in the young geese.
Mony's the time I heard him tell of this experience, and aye the swat
ran upon the man.

It chanced, ye see, that Tam keeked up, and he was awaur of a muckle
solan, and the solan pyking at the line. He thocht this by-ordinar and
outside the creature's habits. He minded that ropes was unco saft
things, and the solan's neb and the Bass Rock unco hard, and that twa
hunner feet were raither mair than he would care to fa'.

"Shoo!" says Tam. "Awa', bird! Shoo, awa' wi' ye!" says he.

The solan keekit doun into Tam's face, and there was something unco in
the creature's ee. Just the ae keek it gied, and back to the rope. But
now it wroucht and warstl't like a thing dementit. There never was the
solan made that wroucht as that solan wroucht; and it seemed to
understand it's employ brawly, birzing the saft rope between the neb of
it and a crunkled jag o' stane.

There gaed a cauld stend o' fear into Tam's heart. "This thing is nae
bird," t