Campbell's Crossing
It happened in the year of the great flood and the big freeze. First came the rain. It had started to rain at the end of November and it went on raining more or less without stopping till Christmas. The rivers rose until they flooded the low-lying land along their banks. Glen Lochie was badly affected by the flooding. The bridge at Inverlochie was washed away in mid-November. That meant that the people with crofts and farms on the north side of the river were more or less cut off. It was just possible to get across the river by boat - but terribly dangerous.
Colin Campbell made two trips before Christmas to bring back supplies for hinself and the two crofts up on Ben Dun. The second time his small boat almost capsized as it came in. The Campbell farm lies way back from the river but, during the floods, the river came almost up to the farmhouse itself.
Inverlochie was the only village for miles, and very isolated. The three of them had grown up there together. Colin Campbell's father had a farm down in the valley. Angus McLeod lived up on the mountain on a small sheep croft, alone with his father. His mother had died when he was a baby. And Flora lived in the village itself. Her father, James McIntosh, ran the post office and the small general store.