‘Well, I mean to take them south and look at them all very carefully.’
‘Lookin’ at stones! Well, well! And have ye no stones in your ain countrie?’
‘O yes, plenty of them; but they are not the same as you have in Skye. But will you not tell me how I am to go to reach Lonfern.’
‘To Lonfern! Ow ay, to be sure, the way to Lonfern. But what use are the stones to you?’
‘Well, I told you, I wished to have samples of the Skye stones beside me.’
CROFTER INQUISITIVENESS
‘To think o’ a man keepin’ stones to look at them! But are they worth onythin’? Can you make onythin’ oot o’ them?’
‘Yes to me they are worth a great deal, for they show me what Skye was like long, long ago. But it is getting dark now, and I really must push on to Lonfern, if you will point out the track.’
‘Ay, ay; well, well, that’s queer enough. To think that ye wud be comin’ all the way frae the south country to pick up a wheen stanes at Loch Staffin. And I’ll warrant the bag’s heavy too. So it is, whatever’ (gently lifting it from my back).
‘Well, my friend, I must say good night, if you won’t help me to find Lonfern.’