“Well; now you have told me your own name, tell me the name of that island, that looks so black with the shadow of the cloud upon it.” “That’s Ilachanu.” “No, no. Ilachanu lies the other way, and we have just come from it. Use your eyes, my man. How should you know which I mean if you stand with your back to it?” “It’s Garveloch, maybe.” “Nay; this is Garveloch that we stand upon. One would think it had no name, by the little you know about it.” “It has not any name,” cried the boy brightening. “Well; why could not you say so before? Do you ever go there?” “I have been there.” “What do you go there for?” “Father takes me in the boat.” “And what do you do when you get there?” “We go and then we come back again.” “I suppose so: but do you fish, or get eggs, or visit your friends, or what?” Rob laughed, stared, and then looked at his brother, who conveyed with some trouble that nobody lived there. The lady next tried to make something of him. “What do you go to that desert island for, my lad?” “Why was you wanting to know?” “Only out of curiosity. If your errand there is a secret, say so, and I will not ask you.” The boy laughed, and said they went sometimes for one thing and sometimes for another; and this was all that could be made out.—What was the distance? was the next question. “It may be twelve mile.” “Twelve! it cannot be so much surely.” “Maybe ’tis five.” “I do not believe it is more than two.” “Indeed, I’m thinking ye’re right.” “You do not seem to know much about the matter.” “Indeed, I know nothing about it.” And so forth, upon every subject started: nor did their father appear much more enlightened in his way. “The cattle seem to have done your field a world of mischief,” observed an English gentleman, “and no wonder, with such a pretence of a fence as that. How long has it been broken down?” “Indeed I can’t remember.” “Not this year, or last,” said his landlord, “for I remember advising you three seasons ago to make your boys clear the ground of these stones, which would have built up your wall presently.—You said you would, and I suppose you still mean to do it some day.” “O aye, some day; and I have spoken to the lads many a time.” “Speaking does not seem to have done much good.” “Indeed, your honour’s right.” “Set about it yourself, I advise you, and then perhaps they will work with you, if you can’t prevail upon them by other means.” “Maybe I will some day.” “I see no stock except a shaggy pony or two, or the few black cattle on the moor there,” observed the English gentleman. “There are both pigs and poultry, if you could find out where they are,” said the laird laughing. The gentleman looked round in vain, and then applied to farmer Murdoch himself. “Do ye think we’ve no more cattle than them?” asked he proudly. “There are many more of the kine down below fishing.” “Cattle fishing! What do you mean?”