It was sweet and laughable to hear Alan eat his words up in the fear of some fresh quarrel . I could have laughed , had not my stitch caught me so hard ; but if I had laughed , I think I must have wept too . `` Alan , '' cried I , `` what makes ye so good to me ? What makes ye care for such a thankless fellow ? '' '' ` Deed , and I do n't know '' said Alan . `` For just precisely what I thought I liked about ye , was that ye never quarrelled : -- and now I like ye better ! '' CHAPTER XXV IN BALQUHIDDER At the door of the first house we came to , Alan knocked , which was of no very safe enterprise in such a part of the Highlands as the Braes of Balquhidder . No great clan held rule there ; it was filled and disputed by small septs , and broken remnants , and what they call `` chiefless folk , '' driven into the wild country about the springs of Forth and Teith by the advance of the Campbells . Here were Stewarts and Maclarens , which came to the same thing , for the Maclarens followed Alan 's chief in war , and made but one clan with Appin . Here , too , were many of that old , proscribed , nameless , red-handed clan of the Macgregors . They had always been ill-considered , and now worse than ever , having credit with no side or party in the whole country of Scotland . Their chief , Macgregor of Macgregor , was in exile ; the more immediate leader of that part of them about Balquhidder , James More , Rob Roy 's eldest son , lay waiting his trial in Edinburgh Castle ; they were in ill-blood with Highlander and Lowlander , with the Grahames , the Maclarens , and the Stewarts ; and Alan , who took up the quarrel of any friend , however distant , was extremely wishful to avoid them . Chance served us very well ; for it was a household of Maclarens that we found , where Alan was not only welcome for his name 's sake but known by reputation . Here then I was got to bed without delay , and a doctor fetched , who found me in a sorry plight . But whether because he was a very good doctor , or I a very young , strong man , I lay bedridden for no more than a week , and before a month I was able to take the road again with a good heart . All this time Alan would not leave me though I often pressed him , and indeed his foolhardiness in staying was a common subject of outcry with the two or three friends that were let into the secret . He hid by day in a hole of the braes under a little wood ; and at night , when the coast was clear , would come into the house to visit me . I need not say if I was pleased to see him ; Mrs. Maclaren , our hostess , thought nothing good enough for such a guest ; and as Duncan Dhu -LRB- which was the name of our host -RRB- had a pair of pipes in his house , and was much of a lover of music , this time of my recovery was quite a festival , and we commonly turned night into day . The soldiers let us be ; although once a party of two companies and some dragoons went by in the bottom of the valley , where I could see them through the window as I lay in bed . What was much more astonishing , no magistrate came near me , and there was no question put of whence I came or whither I was going ; and in that time of excitement , I was as free of all inquiry as though I had lain in a desert .
Yet my presence was known before I left to all the people in XXXXX and the adjacent parts ; many coming about the house on visits and these -LRB- after the custom of the country -RRB- spreading the news among their neighbours .
Balquhidder Campbells Grahames Highlander Lowlander braes day first foolhardiness month