In fact, her only anxiety was that she
might be able to complete all that she could do to
welcome Hamish and the friends who she supposed
must have attached themselves to his band, before
they should arrive, and find her unprovided for their
reception.
But when such efforts as she could make had
been accomplished, she once more had nothing left
to engage her save the trifling care of her goats;
and when these had been attended to, she had only
to review her little preparations, renew such as were
of a transitory nature, replace decayed branches
and fading boughs, and then to sit down at her
cottage door and watch the road, as it ascended on
the one side from the banks of the Awe, and on the
other wound round the heights of the mountain,
with such a degree of accommodation to hill and
level as the plan of the military engineer permitted.
While so occupied, her imagination, anticipating
the future from recollections of the past, formed
out of the morning mist or the evening cloud the
wild forms of an advancing band, which were then
called ``Sidier Dhu,''---dark soldiers---dressed in
their native tartan, and so named to distinguish
them from the scarlet ranks of the British army.
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