STAIR AGNEW GILLON My dear Stair, My dear Stair We have travelled so many roads together, highland and lowland, pleasant and dreary, that I ask you to accept this book of travellers' tales. For Scotland is a wide place to travel in for those who believe that it is not bounded strictly by kirk and market-place, and who have an ear for old songs and lost romances. It is of the back-world of Scotland that I write, the land behind the mist and over the seven bens, a place hard of access for the foot-passenger but easy for the maker of stories. Meantime, to you, who have chosen the better part, I wish many bright days by hill and loch in the summers to come. R. M. S. Briton, at sea J. B. [Pg vii] [Pg vii] CONTENTS "Among idle men there be some who tarry in the outer courts, speeding the days joyfully with dance and song. But the other sort dwell near the portals of the House, and are ever anxious and ill at ease that they may see something of the Shadows which come and go. Wherefore night and day they are found watching by the threshold, in fearfulness and joy, not without tears." Extract from the writings of Donisarius of Padua, circa 1310. [Pg ix] [Pg ix] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE No-Man's Land The Far Islands The Watcher by the Threshold
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