That afternoon, when I got a chance, I had out my _Pilgrim's
_Progress. Page 117, paragraph 3, read:

'__Then I saw in my dream, that a little off the road, over
against the Silver-mine, stood Demas (gentlemanlike) to call to
passengers to come and see: who said to Christian and his
fellow, Ho, turn aside hither and I will show you a _thing.


At tea I led the talk to my own past life. I yarned about my
experiences as a mining engineer, and said I could never get out of
the trick of looking at country with the eye of the prospector. 'For
instance,' I said, 'if this had been Rhodesia, I would have said there
was a good chance of copper in these little kopjes above the town.
They're not unlike the hills round the Messina mine.' I told the
captain that after the war I was thinking of turning my attention to
the West Highlands and looking out for minerals.

'Ye'll make nothing of it,' said the captain. 'The costs are ower
big, even if ye found the minerals, for ye'd have to import a' your
labour. The West Hielandman is no fond o' hard work. Ye ken the
psalm o' the crofter?

__O that the peats would cut themselves,
The fish chump on the shore,
And that I in my bed might lie
Henceforth for ever _more!'

'Has it ever been tried?' I asked.