The Writings of "Fiona Macleod" [Pseud.]

by William Sharp

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910. ... THE CHILDREN OF WIND AND THE CLAN OF PEACE I was abroad on the moors one day in the company of a shepherd, and we were talking of the lapwing that were plentiful there, and were that day wailing continuously in an uneasy wavering flight. I had seen them act thus, in this excess of alarm, in this prolonged restless excitement, when the hill-falcons were hovering overhead in the nesting and, again, just before the unloosening of wind and rain and the sudden fires of the thundercloud. But John Logan the shepherd told me that now it was neither coming lightnings nor drifting hawk nor eagle that made all this trouble among the "peewits." "The wind's goin' to mak' a sudden veer," he said--adding abruptly a little later, "an' by the same token we'll have rain upon us soon." I looked at the cold blue of the sky, and at the drift of the few clouds trailing out of the east or south-east, and could see no sign of any change of wind or likelihood of rain. "What makes you think that?" I asked. "Weel," he answered literally, "I don't think it. It's the peewits an' the craws that ken swifter than oursels; it's they that tell, an' I think they're better at the business than thae folk wha haver awa' in the papers, an' are sometimes richt because they canna help it an' oftener wrang because it's maistly guesswork." "Well, what do the peewits and the crows say?--though I haven't seen crow or rook or corbie for the last hour." "Thae peewits an' a' the plovers are a' the same. If the win's gaun to leap out of the east intae the sooth-wast, or slide quickly from the north intae the wast, they'll gang on wheelin' an' wailin' like yon for an hour or mair, an' that afore there's the least sign o' a change. An' as for the craws... weel, if ye had been lookin' up a wee whil...

68 pages, Paperback

Published January 31, 2012

About the author

William Sharp was a Scottish writer of poetry and literary biography who, from 1893, wrote also as Fiona Macleod. He was born in Paisley and educated at Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow.