s
in adjusting the values of farm produce. With the old men he would
laugh over the jokes of days that had been; tell them how laird had
gone to law with laird, or how poor crofters had been evicted from
their holdings for failing to pay their taxes or their rents. The
young women were always ready to hear from him who was to be
married at Martinmas, or how Nell So-and-so had been jilted; and he
often entertained the young people with strange tales of the
brownies, the trows, the kelpies, or other supernatural beings. In
this way he supplied the place of newspapers and books, which were
scarce commodities in those old days; and he further made himself
useful by doing odd work about the steadings and cottages--such as
building the peats into stacks for the winter, mending a thatch, or
even doctoring a cow.

On the Sunday evening at Lyndardy, while the storm still beat upon
the land, Colin sat with us round the fireside and smoked with my
uncle Mansie. The talk drifted round to the subject of Carver
Kinlay, whose new boat was to be brought from Kirkwall that week.
My uncle did not know for what purpose that new boat was built.

Kinlay was a man who had no settled occupation outside his farm.
Sometimes, it is true, he went out to the herring fishing when the
fish were plentiful, and he thought he could make some money by it,
and he often made secret passages over to Scotland for no one knew
what trade. But it was for none of these purposes that the new boat
was required, for it had been built with a deep keel and a lugger
rig, with a view to being a quick sailer.

Now if anyone should know of Carver's purpose, it would be Colin
Lothian, and my uncle questioned him on the subject.

"Colin," said he, "they tell me that Carver is gettin' a new boat
frae Kirkwall. D'ye ken what he means to do wi' it?"

"That's piper's news," said Colin. "I heard that three or four
weeks syne; and I hae seen the boat mysel', on the stocks at Allan
Dewar's boatyard. Ay, and a bonnie boat she is! As to what Carver
means to do wi' it--Weel, I dinna ken if it be true; but I hae
heard that he intends to start as a Stromness pilot in opposition
to Sandy Ericson."

"A pilot!" exclaimed Mansie. "Carver Kinlay a pilot! Man, Colin, ye
astonish me. Why, the man hasna gotten a certificate!"

"Maybe ay and maybe no; but I assure ye, Mansie, that a pilot he
means to be."

Mansie dismissed this notion incredulously; for though Kinlay knew
the coas