82

THE BOYS’ BROWNING.

DONALD.
Do you happen to know in Ross-shire .
Mount Ben . . . but the name scarce mat-
ters :

Of the naked fact I am sure enough,
Though I clothe it in rags and tatters.

You may recognise Ben by description ;
Behind him — a moor’s immenseness :

Up goes the middle mount of a range,
Fringed with its firs in denseness.

Rimming the edge, its fir-fringe, mind !
For an edge there is, though narrow ;

From end to end of the range, a strip
Of path runs straight as an arrow.

And the mountaineer who takes that path
Saves himself miles of journey

He has to plod if he crosses the moor
Through heather, peat, and burnie.

But a mountaineer he needs must be, ’
For, look you, right in the middle

Projects bluff Ben — with an end in teh —
Why planted there, is a riddle: