It was the day after Doune Fair when my story commences.

It had been a brisk market.

Several dealers had attended from the northern and midland counties in England, and English money had flown so merrily about as to gladden the hearts of the Highland farmers.

Many large droves were about to set off for England, under the protection of their owners, or of the topsmen whom they employed in the tedious, laborious, and responsible office of driving the cattle for many hundred miles, from the market where they had been purchased, to the fields or farmyards where they were to be fattened for the shambles.
The Highlanders in particular are masters of this difficult trade of driving, which seems to suit them as well as the trade of war.

It affords exercise for all their habits of patient endurance and active exertion.