CHAPTER I.
"Ye gentlemen of England,
Who live at home at ease,
Oh, little do ye think upon
The dangers of the seas."—Old Song.
Rather more than eighty years ago, a stout little boy, in his sixth or seventh year, was despatched from an old-fashioned farm-house in the upper part of the parish of Cromarty, to drown a litter of puppies in an adjacent pond. The commission seemed to be not in the least congenial. He sat down beside the...
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