Ceud Mile Faille
So. cutting my losses, I shouldered my :pack and went out, with some dignity, into the dark- ness. It was now close on midnight. The door of the Lady of the Lake Hotel was locked, its windows dark. The town was dead. A fierce hatred of Bunachra arose in me. To the devil, I
said to myself, but breakfast in Dumfoyne. So I took the road over the hill. In a quarter of a
mile I passed a sign and turned to spell it out by the light of the stars. 'Cenci mile failte.' it said. 'Bunachra extends a hundred thousand Highland welcomes to you.' Bunachra, I said to myself, lashing out at the gathering midges. God blot you black, you and all your failte. And for that, Bunachra took its revenge. A fortnight later a summons was served upon me in the midst of my respectability; my solicitor told me I'd have to plead guilty or make an even larger old fool of myself; and in my absence a week or two later I was fined two pounds for a string of offences that must have sounded villainous in the police court. 'You see.' said my wife and children and gran Jchildren, 'what we were getting at?'
ALOYS1US C. PEPPER
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