He was still violent upon that head, and said, 'Sir,
had you gone on, I was thinking that I should have returned with you to
Edinburgh, and then have parted from you, and never spoken to you more.'
I sent for fresh hay, with which we made beds for ourselves, each in a
room equally miserable. Like Wolfe, we had a 'choice of
difficulties[447]'. Dr. Johnson made things easier by comparison. At
M'Queen's, last night, he observed that few were so well lodged in a
ship. To-night he said, we were better than if we had been upon the
hill. He lay down buttoned up in his great coat. I had my sheets spread
on the hay, and my clothes and great coat laid over me, by way
of blankets.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2.
I had slept ill. Dr. Johnson's anger had affected me much. I considered
that, without any bad intention, I might suddenly forfeit his
friendship; and was impatient to see him this morning. I told him how
uneasy he had made me, by what he had said, and reminded him of his own
remark at Aberdeen, upon old friendships being hastily broken off. He
owned he had spoken to me in passion; that he would not have done what
he threatened; and that, if he had, he should have been ten times worse
than I; that forming intimacies, would indeed be 'limning the
water[448],' were they liable to such sudden dissolution; and he added,
'Let's think no more on't.
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