Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1878-12-21
CHAPTER ii.
4 ia RING DEED.

Although Mary Morrison we'll knew the
way that led over the hills from Glenbarr
to Saddell, yet it was difficult to find it on
that wild night. 1t was not dark, however,
for the snow that was lying all around her
made kind OF misty moonlight; and the
hills and glens were dimly visible for some
distance This helped her to note certain
familiar landmarks and to keep her in the
right path.
The range OF hills over which she had to
pass formed the back bone of the long De-
ninsula of Cantire and was upwards of
thousand feet above the level OF the Allan
tic, the hoarse thunder of whose mighty roll
ers she could hear even amid the wild
gusts of the storm. She had to cross over
the southern side OF Benn-an- Tuirc, the
Wild Bears mountain, in the forests of
which, according to her country's legend,
Diarmid, the Fingalian Achilles, slew the
terrible wild boar that was the scourge of
the district, and met his own death when
one OF the boar's bristles pricked his heel
The mountain rose to the LETT OF her path,
but its summit of 2,l1O feet was now con
cealed by the drifting snow and misty va
pors Here she had to cross the river Barr
near to its source in the lonely Loeb Ami.
Gle. A slight stone bridge spanned the
stream, with a low parapet on either side,
barely high enough in the snow to prevent
her from making a false step into the stream
below. The river was now in spate; and it
rushed and roared, and flung itself among
the rough powders in torrent of peat
stained water, its furious heachong dash and
boiling spray contrasting strangely with the
stiffness of the dark tarn, from the tall reeds
OF which the her9ns and wild geese and wild
swans would take their changing flight
On she went, and never faltered or paus-
ed, save but for a few moments to enable her
to regain herspent BREATH or to note the bear
ings of her path. Here and there a noble
Scotch fir, whose ruddy-brown trunk was
planted firmly in the cleft of II crag, raised
on high its twisted arms for the table of
snow that had bespread its massive dark
foliage. These frs, and the groups of grace
full birch and larch, and the scattered
rowan-trees, served her as landmarks in the
snowy landscape By carefully noting
them and their bearings, she paced steadily
| on to her destination down into the solemn
depths Of the deep glen-leaping over the
| burnie rushing seward, climbing the
steep brae, and then away over another
rolling hill, again to encounter similar
repetition OF hill and glen. Yet she held
on her way, and never missed il bevond a
few wards. her set purpose and her deem
love upbearine her through the perils and
trials of this Wild last NIGHT of the old year
and enabling her to brave the dangers Of the
solitary road, 1t was not the first fierce
storm of wind and snow in which she had
wandered abroad, sometimes TO herd the
struggling sheen, and sometimes to fetch m
the kyloes, or to bring the milking cows NJ
the byre. But now she mad higher mo.
tive to sustain her, and o nerve her for the
task that she had undertaken and with her
plaid wrapped tightly over head and shout.
ders, she pressed danntlessly on throuxb
the bleak weather, the very picture Of n
brave Highland maiden.