Oor ain folk times

THE CLAGHAN 15
what corporate life there was in this secluded region.
Here was the house of the factor, the little, low-roofed,
heather -thatched, general store licensed for the sale
of tea and tobacco, the stock of which was of the
most oddly miscellaneous and incongruous character
imaginable ; presided over by an ancient snuffy dame,
possessed of a high mutch and a shrill voice, who knew
every item of gossip in the Glen, took charge of the
Post- Office, and concerned herself with the domestic
affairs of the whole of the population generally. Then
there was the Masonic Hall, mysterious rites being
celebrated at intervals in the same, which were spoken
of with bated breath by all the youngsters in the place.
There were also an Episcopal Church, a blacksmith's
shop, and one or two other little dwellings. To this little
clachan innumerable footpaths converged from every
mountain spur and secluded valley in the tumbled
chain of the Grampians, that rolled their crimson slopes
like billows of fire all around when the heather was
in flame — as happened once a year, when the great
heather-burnings took place, so that the sheep might
have a feast on the fresh young sprouts, that took the
place of the old tangled ' hagg,' after the purifying
flames had passed over it.
The ploughing was of the most primitive character,
sometimes the ' coo ' and the ' cuddy ' being yoked
together ; and not unfrequently the mother of the
family would take the place of either ' coo ' or ' cuddy,'
and drag the wooden plough during the long wearj r
day, so that the not over-kindly earth might be pre-
pared to receive the precious seed that had been stored
over the rafters from the last year's crop.