spent ten years more in regretting his hastiness and criticising his
successor. The ordinary course of life, with fine air and contented
minds, was to do a full share of work till seventy, and then to look
after "orra" jobs well into the eighties, and to "slip awa" within sight
of ninety. Persons above ninety were understood to be acquitting
themselves with credit, and assumed airs of authority, brushing aside
the opinions of seventy as immature, and confirming their conclusions
with illustrations drawn from the end of last century.

When Hillocks' brother so far forgot himself as to "slip awa"
at sixty, that worthy man was scandalized, and offered laboured
explanations at the "beerial."

"It's an awfu' business ony wy ye look at it, an' a sair trial tae us
a'. A' never heard tell o' sic a thing in oor family afore, an' it's no
easy accoontin' for't.

"The gudewife was sayin' he wes never the same sin' a weet nicht he lost
himsel on the muir and slept below a bush; but that's neither here nor
there. A'm thinkin' he sappit his constitution thae twa years he wes
grieve aboot England. That wes thirty years syne, but ye're never the
same aifter thae foreign climates."

Drumtochty listened patiently to Hillocks' apology, but was not
satisfied.

"It's clean havers about the muir. Losh keep's, we've a' sleepit oot and
never been a hair the waur.

"A' admit that England micht hae dune the job; it's no cannie stravagin'