evidently become a favourite subject.
'We fand her in Sandag Bay, Rorie an' me, and a' thae braws in the inside
of her. There's a kittle bit, ye see, about Sandag; whiles the sook rins
strong for the Merry Men; an' whiles again, when the tide's makin' hard
an' ye can hear the Roost blawin' at the far-end of Aros, there comes a
back-spang of current straucht into Sandag Bay. Weel, there's the thing
that got the grip on the _Christ-Anna_. She but to have come in ram-stam
an' stern forrit; for the bows of her are aften under, and the back-side
of her is clear at hie-water o' neaps. But, man! the dunt that she cam
doon wi' when she struck! Lord save us a'! but it's an unco life to be a
sailor--a cauld, wanchancy life. Mony's the gliff I got mysel' in the
great deep; and why the Lord should hae made yon unco water is mair than
ever I could win to understand. He made the vales and the pastures, the
bonny green yaird, the halesome, canty land--
And now they shout and sing to Thee,
For Thou hast made them glad,
as the Psalms say in the metrical version. No that I would preen my
faith to that clink neither; but it's bonny, and easier to mind. "Who go
to sea in ships," they hae't again--
And in
Great waters trading be,
Within the deep these men God's works
And His great wonders see.
Weel, it's easy sayin' sae. Maybe Dauvit wasnae very weel acquant wi'
the sea. But, troth, if it wasnae prentit in the Bible, I wad whiles be
temp'it to think it wasnae the Lord, but the muckle, black deil that made
the sea. There's naething good comes oot o't but the fish; an' the
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