Sawley's hand at the
door, as he denominated me his dear boy, and hoped I would soon come
back and visit Mrs. Sawley and Selina. The recollection of these
passages next morning was the surest antidote to my return.
Three weeks had elapsed, and still the Glenmutchkin Railway shares were
at a premium, though rather lower than when we sold. Our engineer,
Watty Solder, returned from his first survey of the line, along with
an assistant who really appeared to have some remote glimmerings of the
science and practice of mensuration. It seemed, from a verbal report,
that the line was actually practicable; and the survey would have
been completed in a very short time, "if," according to the account
of Solder, "there had been ae hoos in the glen. But ever sin' the
distillery stoppit--and that was twa year last Martinmas--there wasna a
hole whaur a Christian could lay his head, muckle less get white sugar
to his toddy, forby the change-house at the clachan; and the auld lucky
that keepit it was sair forfochten wi' the palsy, and maist in the
dead-thraws. There was naebody else living within twal' miles o' the
line, barring a taxman, a lamiter, and a bauldie.
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