Seldom did human foot tread the heather of
that glen in the days before Donald took up his abode there; to the
raven and the mountain-fox, the muir-fowl and the whaup, alone belonged
that kingdom.
From afar you might perhaps smell the peat reek as he worked his
primitive Still, but unless the smoke of his fire betrayed him, or you
knew the secret of his whereabouts, it had been hard to detect the
existence of Donald's hut, so skilfully was it constructed, so gently
did it blend into the surrounding landscape. Even if it were
accidentally come upon, there was nothing immediately visible which
could excite suspicion. At a bend in the stream, where the banks were
steep, and the burn tumbled noisily over a little linn, dashing past the
rowan trees that clung there amongst its rocks, and plunging headlong
into a deep black pool, stood Donald's hut. Little better than a
"lean-to" against a huge rock, it seemed; at one end a rude doorway,
filled by a crazy door that stood ajar, walls of turf, windowless and
heather-thatched, innocent of chimney, but with an opening that allowed
the smoke of his fires to steal up the face of the rock before it
dispersed into the air. That was all that might be seen at first
glance--that and a stack of peat near the door.
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