[Mr. Standfast by John Buchan]@TWC D-Link bookMr. Standfast CHAPTER FIVE 27/61
Gresson and I walked to the _Tobermory_ together. That afternoon, when I got a chance, I had out my _Pilgrim's Progress_. Page 117, paragraph 3, read: '_Then I saw in my dream, that a little off the road, over against the Silver-mine, stood Demas (gentlemanlike) to call to passengers to come and see: who said to Christian and his fellow, Ho, turn aside hither and I will show you a thing._ At tea I led the talk to my own past life.
I yarned about my experiences as a mining engineer, and said I could never get out of the trick of looking at country with the eye of the prospector.
'For instance,' I said, 'if this had been Rhodesia, I would have said there was a good chance of copper in these little kopjes above the town. They're not unlike the hills round the Messina mine.' I told the captain that after the war I was thinking of turning my attention to the West Highlands and looking out for minerals. 'Ye'll make nothing of it,' said the captain.
'The costs are ower big, even if ye found the minerals, for ye'd have to import a' your labour. The West Hielandman is no fond o' hard work.
Ye ken the psalm o' the crofter? _O that the peats would cut themselves, The fish chump on the shore, And that I in my bed might lie Henceforth for ever more!_' 'Has it ever been tried ?' I asked. 'Often.
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