'Is 't true that my gran'father was the blin' piper o' Portcloddie?'
'Ay, laddie; true eneuch. Hoots, na! nae yer grandfather, but yer
father's grandfather, laddie--my husband's father.'
'Hoo cam that aboot?'
'Weel, ye see, he was oot i' the Forty-five; and efter the battle o'
Culloden, he had to rin for 't. He wasna wi' his ain clan at the
battle, for his father had broucht him to the Lawlands whan he was a
lad; but he played the pipes till a reg'ment raised by the Laird o'
Portcloddie. And for ooks (weeks) he had to hide amo' the rocks.
And they tuik a' his property frae him. It wasna muckle--a wheen
hooses, and a kailyard or twa, wi' a bit fairmy on the tap o' a
cauld hill near the sea-shore; but it was eneuch and to spare; and
whan they tuik it frae him, he had naething left i' the warl' but
his sons. Yer grandfather was born the verra day o' the battle, and
the verra day 'at the news cam, the mother deed. But yer great
grandfather wasna lang or he merried anither wife. He was sic a man
as ony woman micht hae been prood to merry. She was the dother
(daughter) o' an episcopalian minister, and she keepit a school in
Portcloddie. I saw him first mysel' whan I was aboot twenty--that
was jist the year afore I was merried. He was a gey (considerably)
auld man than, but as straucht as an ellwand, and jist pooerfu'
beyon' belief. His shackle-bane (wrist) was as thick as baith mine;
and years and years efter that, whan he tuik his son, my husband,
and his grandson, my Anerew--'
'What ails ye, grannie? What for dinna ye gang on wi' the story?'
After a somewhat lengthened pause, Mrs.
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