''
I was obliged to suspend my curiosity, observing,
that if I persisted in twisting the discourse
one way while Donald was twining it another, I
should make his objection, like a hempen cord, just
so much the tougher. At length the promised turn
of the road brought us within fifty paces of the
tree which I desired to admire, and I now saw to
my surprise, that there was a human habitation
among the cliffs which surrounded it. It was a
hut of the least dimensions, and most miserable description,
that I ever saw even in the Highlands.
The walls of sod, or _divot_, as the Scotch call it, were
not four feet high---the roof was of turf, repaired
with reeds and sedges---the chimney was composed
of clay, bound round by straw ropes---and the
whole walls, roof and chimney, were alike covered
with the vegetation of house-leek, rye-grass, and
moss, common to decayed cottages formed of such
materials. There was not the slightest vestige of
a kale-yard, the usual accompaniment of the very
worst huts; and of living things we saw nothing,
save a kid which was browsing on the roof of the
hut, and a goat, its mother, at some distance, feeding
betwixt the oak and the river Awe.
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