y little basin, almost land-locked, and placid as
a mountain tarn.

Where the voe ends there is only a mere neck of land. It rises
abruptly from both sides, and is crowned by a peak known as the Heogne.

Under shelter of the Heogne, and commanding a magnificent view of
islands and ocean-wastes, stands the old dwelling of Trullyabister.
Mr. Neeven was the cousin of Mr. Adiesen: he left Shetland in his early
youth, and no one heard whether he was alive or dead for thirty years.
Then he returned to his native land, a gloomy, disappointed man, hard
to be recognised as the light-hearted lad who had gone away to make a
fortune in California, and be happy ever afterwards. It seemed that he
had made the fortune, but the happiness had eluded him. He would give
no account of his life, and seldom cared to converse with any one
except Brues Adiesen, from whom he asked and readily obtained the
half-ruined home of their fathers. Two or three rooms were made
habitable; the half-witted brother of James Harrison was hired as
attendant; cart-loads of books were brought from the South (by which
vague term the Shetlanders mean Great Britain); and Gaun Neeven settled
himself in that wild, lone spot, purposing to end his days there. He
was there when Yaspard was very small, therefore the boy always
associated his hermit-relative with the "haunted" house of Boden; and
as he grew older, and the romantic side of his character developed
rapidly, he was greatly attracted to Trullyabister and its queer
occupants--fule-Tammy being, in his way, as mysterious a recluse as his
master.

Yaspard found a great many excuses for going to Trullyabister, although
he very rarely was permitted to enter Mr. Neeven's rooms, and was never
allowed near the "haunted" portion of the dwelling. But Tammy was
usually pleased enough to see him, and would entertain the boy with
many strange legends of the old house; for Tammy was shrewd and
imaginative; his "want" exhibited itself in no outrageous manner, but
rather in a kind of low cunning and feebleness of will. It was Tammy's
talent for story-telling, and his skill as a player of the violin,
which drew Yaspard to him. Also the lad felt a kind of pity for the
creature, and tried, in his plain boy-fashion, to instruct him, and
make him "a little more like other folk."

Signy did not like fule-Tammy: she did not like his sidelong, leering
expression; and she always avoided him, notwithstanding her brother's