'' Her own diminished
consequence and straitened circumstances
she indeed felt, but for this the death of MacTavish
Mhor was, in her apprehension, a sufficing reason;
and she doubted not that she should rise to her
former state of importance, when Hamish Bean (or
Fair-haired James) should be able to wield the
arms of his father. If, then, Elspat was repelled
rudely when she demanded any thing necessary
for her wants, or the accommodation of her little
flock, by a churlish farmer, her threats of vengeance,
obscurely expressed, yet terrible in their
tenor, used frequently to extort, through fear of
her maledictions, the relief which was denied to
her necessities; and the trembling goodwife, who
gave meal or money to the widow of MacTavish
Mhor, wished in her heart that the stern old carlin
had been burnt on the day her husband had his
due.
Years thus ran on, and Hamish Bean grew up,
not indeed to be of his father's size or strength,
but to become an active, high-spirited, fair-haired
youth, with a ruddy cheek, an eye like an eagle,
and all the agility, if not all the strength, of his
formidable father, upon whose history and achievements
his mother dwelt, in order to form her son's
mind to a similar course of adventures.
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