Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/432

4l6 CRITICAL STUDIES sir, it was never printed i' the world. . . . But mair nor that, except * George Warton ' and 'James Steward,' there was never ane o' my sangs prentit till ye prentit them yoursell, an' ye hae spoilt them a'thegither. They war made for singing, an' no for reading ; an' they're nouther right spelled nor right setten down." " Heh-heh-heh ! Take ye that, Mr. Scott," said I -aid- law ; and Scott laughed heartily. After two or three journeys to the Highlands and Hebrides, Hogg with another took a sheep farm in the island of Harris ; but the tacksman's right to it was disputed, and our shepherd lost by the affair the j£2oo he had saved during his ten years' service at Blackhouse. Fortunately he was of a most buoyant nature. He went and sojourned among the lakes of Cumberland; then cheerfully hired himself, in 1804, as shepherd to Mr. Harkness, of Mitchel-Slack, in Nithsdale, herding on the great solitary hill of Queens- berry, again in a ragged coat and barefooted. Hither came Allan Cunningham, then apprentice to a stone- mason, with a much older brother, on a pilgrimage of hero-worship ; just as Allan once walked all the way to Edinburgh, merely to catch a glimpse of Scott in the street. Hogg saw the two approaching, and wondered who they could be ; and when the elder, James Cunningham, asked whether he was himself, " I answered cautiously in the affirmative, for I was afraid they were come to look after me with an ac- cusation regarding some of the lasses. The younger stood at a respectful distance, as if I had been the Duke of Queensberry, instead of a ragged servant lad [age about 34] herding sheep. The other seized my hand and said, ' Well, then, sir, I am glad to see you.