human
Good evening, sir!
gpt
Hello, Halcro, my lad!
human
Good evening! said my sailor companion to the dominie.
gpt
I see you have some fine trout there.
human
Yes, said Andrew, when he had returned the greeting.
gpt
They're not so bad, and I've had some fine sport with them. Are you coming from Kirkwall?
human
No, replied the sailor.
gpt
I was just up the hill there for a saunter in the gloaming. The gloaming lasts very long here, I notice. What time is it dark in midsummer?
human
In midsummer? replied Andrew.
gpt
Well, it's seldom darker than this; and on the twenty-first of June you can see the sun even at midnight from the top of the Ward Hill yonder. You'll belong to one of the ships here, no doubt, sir?
human
Yes, that barque out there with the tall masts.
gpt
Ay, she came in today. That will be the Lydia, I'm thinking, and you will be Captain Gordon? Bailie Duke was telling me you were in the port. And when do you sail?
human
Tomorrow, said the captain.
gpt
We're bound for Brazil; but I was wanting to see some people tonight. Pilot Ericson asked me to smoke a pipe with him. Then I have to see Grace Drever, to--
human
Grace Drever!
gpt
Yes, continued Captain Gordon.
human
My ship's overrun with mice, and I was directed to Grace Drever, who, I am told, deals in all the charms and cantrips a sailor can require.
gpt
Charms and cantrips! echoed the schoolmaster.
human
Why, who on earth has been putting such notions into your head? I doubt if you go to Grace Drever on such an errand you'll be disappointed, sir.
gpt
You know the old lady, then?
human
Just as well as a man can know his own mother,
gpt
Oh! then, you'll be the schoolmaster? Really, I beg your pardon; but I was told that Mistress Drever had dealings with such things; and although I am not exactly superstitious--
human
Never mind, sir, never mind. It's just some ignorant lads have been making up the story; and it's all one to me, for I know well it's not true. There was once a woman in Stromness, I will allow, who used to sell favourable winds to the sailors. But though there is still a most lamentable amount of superstition in the Orkney folk--belief in witches and warlocks and such nonsense--it's gradually, just gradually, dying away.
gpt
No doubt the influence of your schools,
human
Ay, no doubt, said Andrew.
gpt
But what was it you were saying about mice?
human
Why, we're just infested with them, and I must get either cats or poison for them, or I'll not say but we may be manned by mice instead of men before we get beyond Cape Wrath.
gpt
My mother has a cat, quietly remarked Andrew,
human
Oh, thanks, thanks, most happy!