''
``It may not be, mother,'' said Hamish; ``I do
not repent my engagement, unless that it must
make me leave you soon.''
``Leave me! how leave me? Silly boy, think
you I know not what duty belongs to the wife or
mother of a daring man? Thou art but a boy yet;
and when thy father had been the dread of the
country for twenty years, he did not despise my
company and assistance, but often said my help was
worth that of two strong gillies.''
``It is not on that score, mother; but since I
must leave the country---''
``Leave the country!'' replied his mother, interrupting
him; ``and think you that I am like a
bush, that is rooted to the soil where it grows, and
must die if carried elsewhere? I have breathed
other winds than these of Ben Cruachan---I have
followed your father to the wilds of Ross, and the
impenetrable deserts of Y Mac Y Mhor---Tush,
man, my limbs, old as they are, will bear me as
far as your young feet can trace the way.''
``Alas, mother,'' said the young man, with a
faltering accent, ``but to cross the sea---''
``The sea! who am I that I should fear the
sea? Have I never been in a birling in my life
---never known the Sound of Mull, the Isles of
Treshornish, and the rough rocks of Harris?''
``Alas, mother, I go far, far from all of these---
I am enlisted in one of the new regiments, and we
go against the French in America.
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