His sleeping place was a very wild one. It was no other than Hell’s Lum. He knew the place well. He had entered it both from the sea-side and from the land-side. He had been in it in storm and calm, in clouds and sunshine. And now he was about to spend the night in it. The weather was, however, calm; the sea was like a sheet of glass; so that he had little fear of getting a wetting during his few hours’ stay. While in the “Lum,” he was at the back of the cliffs, and in close proximity with the breeding places of the myriads of sea-fowl. It was now the busiest part of the season. The birds had been very clamorous during the day, but as night came on, their clamour ceased. With the exception of a few screams,—while, perhaps, the birds were being displaced in their nests,—the night was silent, though Edward kept awake and listened for nearly the whole time.
But with the first glimmerings of daylight, and just as he was beginning to move and to creep out of the pit, Edward thought that he heard some of the birds beginning to whimper and yawn, as if ready for another day’s work; and by the time he had rounded Crovie Head, he beheld the cliffs alive, and the multitude of sea-birds again in full operation.
[42] First in the _Banffshire Journal_, December 31, 1850; and afterwards copied by Mr. Smith in the _Zoologist_, April 1851.
A GREAT misfortune befell Edward in 1854: his friend the Rev. Mr. Smith died. He was a man whose richly cultivated mind and warm heart endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. He was almost the only man of culture in the neighbourhood who appreciated the character of Edward. He not only made himself his friend, but became his helper. Edward was under the impression that people looked down upon him and his work, because he was a poor shoemaker. There were other persons who knew of Edward’s perseverance, self-denial, and uncomplainingness, and also of his efforts to rise into a higher life. But they did not help him as Mr. Smith did. The true Christian gentleman treated the poor man as his friend. He treated him as one intelligent man treats another. The shoemaker from Banff was always made welcome at the minister’s fireside at Monquhitter.