`` I liked you very well , Alan , but your ways are not mine , and they 're not God 's : and the short and the long of it is just that we must twine . '' * Part . `` I will hardly twine from ye , David , without some kind of reason for the same , '' said Alan , mighty gravely . `` If ye ken anything against my reputation , it 's the least thing that ye should do , for old acquaintance ' sake , to let me hear the name of it ; and if ye have only taken a distaste to my society , it will be proper for me to judge if I 'm insulted . '' `` Alan , '' said I , `` what is the sense of this ? Ye ken very well yon Campbell-man lies in his blood upon the road . '' He was silent for a little ; then says he , `` Did ever ye hear tell of the story of the Man and the Good People ? '' -- by which he meant the fairies . `` No , '' said I , `` nor do I want to hear it . '' `` With your permission , Mr. Balfour , I will tell it you , whatever , '' says Alan . `` The man , ye should ken , was cast upon a rock in the sea , where it appears the Good People were in use to come and rest as they went through to Ireland . The name of this rock is called the Skerryvore , and it 's not far from where we suffered ship-wreck . Well , it seems the man cried so sore , if he could just see his little bairn before he died ! that at last the king of the Good People took peety upon him , and sent one flying that brought back the bairn in a poke * and laid it down beside the man where he lay sleeping . So when the man woke , there was a poke beside him and something into the inside of it that moved . Well , it seems he was one of these gentry that think aye the worst of things ; and for greater security , he stuck his dirk throughout that poke before he opened it , and there was his bairn dead . I am thinking to myself , Mr. Balfour , that you and the man are very much alike . '' * Bag . `` Do you mean you had no hand in it ? '' cried I , sitting up .
`` I will tell you first of all , Mr. Balfour of Shaws , as one friend to another , '' said XXXXX , `` that if I were going to kill a gentleman , it would not be in my own country , to bring trouble on my clan ; and I would not go wanting sword and gun , and with a long fishing-rod upon my back . ''
Alan Balfour Campbell-man David Ireland Man Skerryvore bairn dirk ship-wreck