`` Davie , Davie , '' I thought , `` was ever seen such black ingratitude ? Can you forget old favours and old friends at the mere whistle of a name ? Fie , fie ; think shame . '' And I sat down on the boulder the good man had just left , and opened the parcel to see the nature of my gifts . That which he had called cubical , I had never had much doubt of ; sure enough it was a little Bible , to carry in a plaid-neuk . That which he had called round , I found to be a shilling piece ; and the third , which was to help me so wonderfully both in health and sickness all the days of my life , was a little piece of coarse yellow paper , written upon thus in red ink : `` TO MAKE LILLY OF THE VALLEY WATER . -- Take the flowers of lilly of the valley and distil them in sack , and drink a spooneful or two as there is occasion . It restores speech to those that have the dumb palsey . It is good against the Gout ; it comforts the heart and strengthens the memory ; and the flowers , put into a Glasse , close stopt , and set into ane hill of ants for a month , then take it out , and you will find a liquor which comes from the flowers , which keep in a vial ; it is good , ill or well , and whether man or woman . '' And then , in the minister 's own hand , was added : `` Likewise for sprains , rub it in ; and for the cholic , a great spooneful in the hour . '' To be sure , I laughed over this ; but it was rather tremulous laughter ; and I was glad to get my bundle on my staff 's end and set out over the ford and up the hill upon the farther side ; till , just as I came on the green drove-road running wide through the heather , I took my last look of Kirk Essendean , the trees about the manse , and the big rowans in the kirkyard where my father and my mother lay . CHAPTER II I COME TO MY JOURNEY 'S END On the forenoon of the second day , coming to the top of a hill , I saw all the country fall away before me down to the sea ; and in the midst of this descent , on a long ridge , the city of Edinburgh smoking like a kiln . There was a flag upon the castle , and ships moving or lying anchored in the firth ; both of which , for as far away as they were , I could distinguish clearly ; and both brought my country heart into my mouth . Presently after , I came by a house where a shepherd lived , and got a rough direction for the neighbourhood of Cramond ; and so , from one to another , worked my way to the westward of the capital by Colinton , till I came out upon the Glasgow road . And there , to my great pleasure and wonder , I beheld a regiment marching to the fifes , every foot in time ; an old red-faced general on a grey horse at the one end , and at the other the company of Grenadiers , with their Pope 's - hats . The pride of life seemed to mount into my brain at the sight of the red coats and the hearing of that merry music . A little farther on , and I was told I was in Cramond parish , and began to substitute in my inquiries the name of the house of Shaws . It was a word that seemed to surprise those of whom I sought my way . At first I thought the plainness of my appearance , in my country habit , and that all dusty from the road , consorted ill with the greatness of the place to which I was bound . But after two , or maybe three , had given me the same look and the same answer , I began to take it in my head there was something strange about the Shaws itself .
The better to set this fear at rest , I changed the form of my inquiries ; and spying an honest fellow coming along a lane on the shaft of his cart , I asked him if he had ever heard tell of a house they called the house of XXXXX .
Colinton Cramond Davie Essendean Glasse Shaws firth palsey plaid-neuk third