and as soon as Harry's lamp announced the arrival of his former viewer
he advanced to meet him.


"Welcome, Mr. Starr!" he exclaimed, his voice echoing under
the roof of schist. "Welcome to the old overman's cottage!
Though it is buried fifteen hundred feet under the earth,
our house is not the less hospitable."

"And how are you, good Simon?" asked James Starr, grasping the hand
which his host held out to him.

"Very well, Mr. Starr. How could I be otherwise here,
sheltered from the inclemencies of the weather?
Your ladies who go to Newhaven or Portobello in the summer time
would do much better to pass a few months in the coal mine
of Aberfoyle! They would run no risk here of catching a heavy cold,
as they do in the damp streets of the old capital."

"I'm not the man to contradict you, Simon," answered James Starr,
glad to find the old man just as he used to be. "Indeed, I wonder why
I do not change my home in the Canongate for a cottage near you."

"And why not, Mr. Starr? I know one of your old miners who would
be truly pleased to have only a partition wall between you and him."

"And how is Madge?" asked the engineer.

"The goodwife is in better health than I am, if that's possible,"
replied Ford, "and it will be a pleasure to her to see you at her table.