found that the man of the last mattock was absent | at a bridal, being fiddler as well as grave-digger to the vicinity. He therefore retired to the little inn, leaving a message that early next morning he would again call for the person, whose double occupation connected him at once with the house of mourning and the house of feasting.

An outrider of the Marquis arrived at Tod's-hole shortly after, with a message, intimating that his master would join Ravenswood at that place on the following morning; and the Master, who would otherwise have proceeded to his old retreat at Wolf's Crag, remained there accordingly, to give meeting to his noble kinsman.

CHAPTER XXIV.

witch cummers would soon whirl her out of her shroud for a' their auld acquaintance-and be't six feet, or be't three, wha's to pay the making o't, I pray ye?"

"I will pay that, my friend, and all other reasonable charges.'

ou,

"Reasonable charges?" said the sexton; 64 there's grand-mail-and bell-siller-(though the bell's broken nae doubt)-and the kist-and my day's wark and my bit fee-and some brandy and vill to the drigie--I am no thinking that you can inter her, to ca' decently, under saxteen punds Scots."

"There is the money, my friend," said Ravenswood," and something over. Be sure you know the grave."

Ye'll be ane o' her English relations, I'se warrant," said the hoary man of skulls; "I hae heard she

Hamlet. Has this fellow no feeling of his business- he sings at married far below her station; it was very right to let

grave making.

daintier sense.

Horatio. Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. Hamlet. "Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the Hamlet, Act V. Scene I. THE sleep of Ravenswood was broken by ghastly and agitating visions, and his waking intervals disturbed by melancholy reflections on the past, and painful anticipations of the future. He was perhaps the only traveller who ever slept in that miserable kennel without complaining of his lodgings, or feeling inconvenience from their deficiencies. It is when "the mind is free the body's delicate." Morning, however, found the Master an early riser, in hopes that the fresh air of the dawn might afford the refreshment which night had refused him. He took his way toward the solitary burial-ground, which lay about half a mile from the inn.

her bite on the bridle when she was living, and it's that's a matter of credit to yoursell rather than to her. very right to gie her a decent burial now she's dead, for Folk may let their kindred shift for themsells when they are alive, and can bear the burden of their ain misdoings; but it's an unnatural thing to let them be buried like dogs, when a' the discredit gangs to the kindred-what kens the dead corpse about it?"

"You would not have people neglect their relations on a bridal occasion neither?" said Ravenswood, who was amused with the professional limitation of the grave-digger's philanthropy.

The old man cast up his sharp gray eyes with a shrewd smile, as if he understood the jest, but instantly continued, with his former gravity, Bridals -wha wad neglect bridals, that had ony regard for plenishing the earth? To be sure, they suld be celebrated with all manner of good cheer, and meeting of friends, and musical instruments, harp, sackbut, and psaltery; or gude fiddle and pipes, when these huldwarld instruments of melody are hard to be com

"The presence of the fiddle, I dare say," replied Ra venswood, "would atone for the absence of all the others."

The thin blue smoke, which already began to curl upward, and to distinguish the cottage of the living from the habitation of the dead, apprized him that its inmate had returned and was stirring. Accord-passed." ingly, on entering the little churchyard, he saw the old man labouring in a half-made grave. My destiny, thought Ravenswood, seems to lead me to scenes of fate and of death; but these are childish thoughts, and they shall not master me. I will not again suffer my imagination to beguile my senses.The old man rested on his spade as the Master approached him, as if to receive his commands; and as he did not immediately speak, the sexton opened the discourse in his own way.

"Ye will be a wedding customer, sir, I'se warrant ?" "What makes you think so, friend?" replied the Master.

"I live by twa trades, sir," replied the blithe old man; "fiddle, sir, and spade; filling the world, and emptying of it; and I suld ken baith cast of customers by head mark in thirty years' practice." "You are mistaken, however, this morning," replied Ravenswood.

Am I?" said the old man, looking keenly at him, troth and it may be; since, for as brent as your brow is, there is something sitting upon it this day, that is as near akin to death as to wedlock. Weel, weel; the pick and shovel are as ready to your order as bow and fiddle."

"I wish you," said Ravenswood, 66 to look after the decent interment of an old woman, Alice Gray, who lived at the Craig-foot in Ravenswood Park."

Alice Gray! blind Alice!" said the sexton; "and is she gane at last? that's another jow of the bell to bid rae be ready, I mind when Habbie Gray brought her down to this land; a likely lass she was then, and looked ower her southland nose at us a'. I trow her pride got a downcome. And is she e'en gane?" "She died yesterday," said Ravenswood; 66 and desired to be buried here, beside her husband; you know where he lies, no doubt?"

"Ken where he lies?" answered the sexton, with national indirection of response, "I ken whar a' body lies, that lies here. But ye were speaking o' her grave?-Lord help us-it's no ordinar grave that will haud her in, if a's true that folk said of Alice in her auld days; and if I gae to six feet deep,--and a warlock's grave shouldna be an inch mair ebb, or her ain

The sexton again looked sharply up at him, as he answered, "Nae doubt-nae doubt-if it were weel played; but yonder," he said, as if to change the discourse, "is Halbert Gray's lang hame, that ye were speering after, just the third bourock beyond the muckle through-stane that stands on sax legs yonder, abune some ane of the Ravenswood; for there is mony of their kin and followers here, deil lift them! though it isna just their main burial place."

"They are no favourites, then, of yours, these Ra venswoods?" said the Master, not much pleased with the passing benediction which was thus bestowed on his family and name.

"I kenna wha should favour them," said the gravedigger; "when they had lands and power, they were ill guides of them baith, and now their head's down, there's few care how lang they may be of lifting it again."

"Indeed!" said Ravenswood; "I never heard that this unhappy family deserved ill-will at the hands of their country. I grant their poverty-if that renders them contemptible."

Hermitage, "ye may tak my word for that-at least, I "It will gang a far way till't," said the sexton of ken naething else that suld mak myself contemptible, and folk are far frae respecting me as they wad do if I lived in a twa-lofted selated house. But as for the Ravenswoods, I have seen three generations of them, and deil ane to mend other."

"I thought they had enjoyed a fair character in the country," said their descendant.

"Character! Ou, ye see, sir," said the sexton, "as for the auld gude-sire body of a lord, I lived on his land when I was a swanking young chield, and could hae blawn the trumpet wi' ony body, for I had wind eneugh then-and touching this trumpeter Marine that I have heard play afore the Lords of the Circuit, I wad hae made nae mair o' him than of a bairn and a bawbee whistle-I defy him to hae played 'Boot and saddle,' or 'Horse and away,' or 'Gallants, come trot,' with me he hadna the tones."

"But what is all this to old Lord Ravenswood, | wood, deprive you of what the bounty of his father my friend?" said the Master, who, with an anxiety allowed you?" not unnatural in his circumstances, was desirous of prosecuting the musician's first topic-"What had his memory to do with the degeneracy of the trumpet music?"

Ay, troth did he," answered the old man; "for he loot his affairs gang to the dogs, and let in this Sir William Ashton on us, that will gie naething for naething, and just removed me and a' the puir creatures "Just this, sir," answered the sexton, "that I lost that had bite and soup at the castle, and a hole to put my wind in his service. Ye see I was trumpeter at our heads in, when things were in the auld way." the castle, and had allowance for blawing at break of | "If Lord Ravenswood protected his people, my day, and at dinner-time, and other whiles when there friend, while he had the means of doing so, I think was company about, and it pleased my lord; and they might spare his memory," replied the Master. when he raised his militia to caper awa to Bothwell Ye are welcome to your ain opinion, sir," said Brigg against the wrang-headed waistland whigs, I the sexton; "but ye winna persuade me that he did heloved, reason or nane, to munt a horse and caper his duty, either to himsell or to huz puir dependen awa wi' them." creatures, in guiding us the gate he has done-he might hae gien us liferent tacks of our bits o' houses and yards and me, that's an auld man, living in yon miserable cabin, that's fitter for the dead than the quick, and killed wi' rheumatise, and John Smith in my dainty bit mailing, and his window glazen, and a' because Ravenswood guided his gear like a fule !" "It is but too true," said Ravenswood, consciencestruck; "the penalties of extravagance extend far beyond the prodigal's own sufferings." "However," said the sexton, this young man Edgar is like to avenge my wrangs on the haill of his "Indeed?" said Ravenswood; "why should you suppose so?”

"And very reasonable," said Ravenswood: "you were his servant and vassal."

"Servitor, say ye?" replied the sexton, "and so I was-but it was to blaw folk to their warm dinner, or at the warst to a decent kirkyard, and no to skirl them awa to a bluidy brae side, where there was deil a bedral but the hooded craw. But bide ye-ye shall hear what cam o't, and how far I am bund to be bedesman to the Ravenswoods.-Till't, ye see, we gaed on a braw simmer morning, twenty-fourth of June, saxteen hundred and se'enty-nine, of a' the days of the month and year,-drums beat-guns rattled-kindred." horses kicked and trampled. Hackstoun of Rathillet keepit the brigg wi' musket and carabine and pike, sword and scythe for what I ken, and we horsemen were ordered down to cross at the ford,-I hate fords at a' times, let abe when there's thousands of armed men on the other side. There was auld Ravenswood brandishing his Andrew Ferrara at the head, and crying to us to come and buckle to, as if we had been gaun to a fair,-there was Caleb Balderstone, that is living yet, flourishing in the rear, and swearing Gog and Magog, he would put steel through the guts of ony man that turned bridle,-there was young Allan Ravenswood, that was then master, wi' a bended Cervantes acutely remarks, that flattery is pleasing pistol in his hand,-it was a mercy it gaed na aff,- even from the mouth of a madman; and censure, as crying to me, that had scarce as much wind left as well as praise, often affects us, while we despise the serve the necessary purpose of my ain lungs, Sound, opinions and motives on which it is founded and exyou poltron! sound, you damned cowardly villain, pressed. Ravenswood, abruptly reiterating his comor I will blow your brains out! and, to be sure, Imand that Alice's funeral should be attended to, flung blew sic points of war, that the scraugh of a clockinhen was music to them."

"Well, sir, cut all this short," said Ravenswood. "Short!-I had like to hae been cut short mysell, in the flower of my youth, as Scripture says; and that's the very thing that I compleen o'.-Weel! in to the water we behoved a' to splash, heels ower head, sit or fa-ae horse driving on anither, as is the way of brute beasts, and riders that hae as little sense, the very bushes on the ither side were ableeze, wi' the flashes of the whig guns; and my horse had just taen the grund, when a blackavised westland carle-I wad amind the face o' him a hundred years yet-an ce like a wild falcon's, and a beard as broad as my shovel, clapped the end o' his lang black gun within a quarter's length of my lug! by the grace o' Mercy, the horse swarved round, and I fell aff at the tae side as the ball whistled by at the tither, and the fell auld ford took the whig such a swauk wi' his broadsword that he made twa pieces o' his head, and down fell the lurdane wi' a' his bowk abune me.”

"You were rather obliged to the old lord, I think," said Ravenswood.

"Was I? my sartie! first for bringing me into jeopardy, would I nould I-and then for whomling a chield on the tap o' me, that dang the very wind out of my body?--I hae been short-breathed ever since, and canna gang twenty yards without peghing like a miller's aiver.

"You lost, then, your place as trumpeter?" said Ravenswood.

"Lost it? to be sure I lost it," replied the sexton, "for I couldna hae played pew upon a dry humlock; --but I might hac dune weel eneugh, for I keepit the wage and the free house, and little to do but play on the fiddle to them, but for Allan, last Lord Ravenswood, that was far waur than ever his father was." "What," said the Master, "did my father--I mean, did his father's son-this last Lord Ravens

"They say he is about to marry the daughter of Leddy Ashton; and let her leddyship get his head ance under her oxter, and see you if she winna gie his neck a thraw. Sorra a bit, if I were him-Let her alane for hauding a' thing in het water that draws near her-sae the warst wish I shall wish the lad is, that he may take his ain creditable gate o't, and ally himsell wi' his father's enemies, that have taken his broad lands and my bonny kailyard from the lawful owners thereof."

away from the sexton, under the painful impression that the great, as well as the small vulgar, would think of his engagement with Lucy like this ignorant and selfish peasant.

"And I have stooped to subject myself to these calumnies, and am rejected notwithstanding! Lucy, your faith must be true and perfect as the diamond, to compensate for the dishonour which men's opinions, and the conduct of your mother, attach to the heir of Ravenswood!"

As he raised his eyes, he beheld the Marquis of A-, who, having arrived at the Tod's-hole, had walked forth to look for his kinsman.

After mutual greetings, he made some apology to the Master for not coming forward on the preceding evening. "It was his wish," he said, "to have done 30, but he had come to the knowledge of some matters which induced him to delay his purpose. I find," he proceeded, “there has been a love affair here, kinsman; and though I might blame you for not having communicated with me, as being in some degree the chief of your family"

"With your lordship's permission," said Ravenswood, "I am deeply grateful for the interest you are pleased to take in ine-but I am the chief and head of my family."

"I know it-I know it," said the Marquis; "in a strict heraldic and genealogical sense, you certainly are so-what I mean is, that being in some measure under my guardianship".

"I must take the liberty to say, my lord," answered Ravenswood-and the tone in which he interrupted the Marquis boded no long duration to the friendship of the noble relatives, when he himself was interrupted by the little sexton, who came puffing after them, to ask if their honours would choose music at the change-house to make up for short cheer.

"We want no music," said the Master abruptly.
"Your honour disna ken what ye're refusing then,"

stances admitted; but the Marquis protested his kinsman must afford him his company, and would only consent that an avant-courier should carry to the destined Seneschal, Caleb Balderstone, the unexpected news of this invasion.

her father will be neither useful nor ornamental, | matters put in such preparation as time and circumbeyond that part of your father's spoils which he may be prevailed upon to disgorge by way of tocher good -and take my word for it, you will get more if you have spirit to bell the cat with him in the House of Peers. And I will be the man, cousin," continued his lordship, "will course the fox for you, and make him rue the day that ever he refused a composition too honourable for him, and proposed by me on the behalf of a kinsman."

So.

The Master of Ravenswood soon after accompanied the Marquis in his carriage, as the latter had proposed; and when they became better acquainted in the progress of the journey, his noble relation explained the very liberal views which he entertained for his relation's preferment, in case of the success of his own important commission beyond sea, which could only be intrusted to a person of rank, talent, and perfect confidence, and which, as it required great trust and reliance on the envoy employed, could not but prove both honourable and advantageous to him. We need not enter into the nature and purpose of this commission, farther than to acquaint our readers that the charge was in prospect highly acceptable to the Master of Ravenswood, who hailed with pleasure the hope of emerging from his present state of indigence and inaction, into independence and honourable exertion.

There was something in all this that, as it were, overshot the mark. Ravenswood could not diguise from himself that his noble kinsman had more rea-political schemes. They related to a secret, and highly sons for taking offence at the reception of his suit, than regarded his interest and honour, yet he could neither complain nor be surprised that it should be He contented himself therefore with repeating, that his attachment was to Miss Ashton personally; that he desired neither wealth nor aggrandizement from her father's means and influence; and that nothing should prevent his keeping his engagement, excepting her own expressed desire that it should be relinquished and he requested as a favour that the matter might be no more mentioned betwixt them at present, assuring the Marquis of A- that he should be his confidant in its progress or its interruption. The Marquis soon had more agreeable, as well as more interesting subjects on which to converse. A foot post, who had followed him from Edinburgh to Ravenswood Castle, and had traced his steps to the Tod's-hole, brought him a packet laden with good news. The political calculations of the Marquis had proved just, both in London and at Edinburgh, and he saw almost within his grasp, the pre-eminence for which he had panted. The refreshments which the servants had prepared were now put on the table, and an epicure would perhaps have enjoyed them with additional zest, from the contrast which such fare afforded to the miserable cabin in which it was served up.

The turn of conversation corresponded with and added to the social feelings of the company. The Marquis expanded with pleasure on the power which probable incidents were likely to assign to him, and on the use which he hoped to make of it in serving his kinsman Ravenswood. Ravenswood could but repeat the gratitude which he really felt, even when he considered the topic as too long dwelt upon. The wine was excellent, notwithstanding its having been brought in a runlet from Edinburgh; and the habits of the Marquis, when engaged with such good cheer, were somewhat sedentary. And so it fell out that they delayed their journey two hours later than was their original purpose.

64 But what of that, my good young friend?" said the Marquis; "your Castle of Wolf's Crag is but at five or six miles distance, and will afford the same hospitality to your kinsman of A- that it gave to this same Sir William Ashton."

Sir William took the castle by storm," said Ravenswood, "and, like many a victor, had little reason to congratulate himself on his conquest."

"Well, well!" said Lord A-, whose dignity was something relaxed by the wine he had drunk,-"I see I must bribe you to harbour me-Come, pledge me in a bumper health to the last young lady that slept at Wolf's Crag, and liked her quarters.-My bones are not so tender as hers, and I am resolved to occupy her apartment to-night, that I may judge how hard the conch is that love can soften."

"Your lordship may choose what penance you please," said Ravenswood; "but I assure you, I should expect my old servant to hang himself, or throw himself from the battlements, should your lordship visit him so unexpectedly--I do assure you, we are totally and literally unprovided."

While he listened thus eagerly to the details with which the Marquis now thought it necessary to intrust him, the messenger who had been dispatched to the Tower of Wolf's Crag, returned with Caleb Balderstone's humble duty, and an assurance that “a' should be in seemly order, sic as the hurry of time permitted, to receive their lordships as it behoved." Ravenswood was too well accustomed to his Seneschal's mode of acting and speaking, to hope much from this confident assurance. He knew that Caleb acted upon the principle of the Spanish generals, in the campaign of, who, much to the perplexity of the Prince of Orange, their commander-in-chief, used to report their troops as full in number, and possessed of all necessary points of equipment, not considering it consistent with their dignity, or the honour of Spain, to confess any deficiency either in men or munition, until the want of both was unavoidably discovered in the day of battle. Accordingly, Ravenswood thought it necessary to give the Marquis some hint, that the fair assurance which they had just received from Caleb, did not by any means insure them against a very indifferent reception.

"You do yourself injustice, Master," said the Marquis, "or you wish to surprise me agreeably. From this window I see a great light in the direction where, if I remember aright, Wolf's Crag lies; and, to judge from the splendour which the old Tower sheds around it, the preparations for our reception must be of no ordinary description. I remember your father putting the same deception on me, when we went to the Tower for a few days' hawking, about twenty years since, and yet we spent our time as jollily at Wolf's Crag as we could have done at my own hunting seat at B

"Your lordship, I fear, will experience that the faculty of the present proprietor to entertain his friends is greatly abridged," said Ravenswood; "the will, I need hardly, say, remains the same. But I am as much at a loss as your lordship to account for so strong and brilliant a light as is now above Wolf's Crag, the windows of the Tower are few and narrow, and those of the lower story are hidden from us by the walls of the court. I cannot conceive that any illumination of an ordinary nature could afford such a blaze of light."

The mystery was soon explained; for the cavalcade almost instantly halted, and the voice of Caleb Balderstone was heard at the coach window, exclaiming, in accents broken by grief and fear, "Och, gentlemen

Och, my gude lords-Och, haud to the right!But his declaration only brought from his noble Wolf's Crag is burning, bower and ha'-a' the rich patron an assurance of his own total indifference as plenishing outside and inside-a' the fine graith, picto every species of accommodation, and his determi-tures, tapestries, needle-wark, hangings, and other nation to see the Tower of Wolf's Crag. His ances- decorements-a' in a bleeze, as if they were nae mair tor, he said, had been feasted there, when he went for- than sae mony peats, or as muckle peas-strae! Hand ward with the then Lord Ravenswood to the fatal to the right, gentlemen, I implore ye-there is some battle of Flodden, in which they both fell. Thus hard sma' provisions making at Lucky Sma'trash's-but O pressed, the Master offered to ride forward to get wae for this night, and wae for me that lives to see it!*

Ravenswood was at first stunned by this new and, ne'er a living soul in the castle, a' the better for them unexpected calamity; but after a moment's recol--they wad have gotten an unco heezy." lection, he sprang from the carriage, and hastily bidding his noble kinsman good-night, was about to ascend the hill towards the castle, the broad and full conflagration of which now flung forth a high column of red light, that flickered far to seaward upon the dashing waves of the ocean.

"Take a horse, Master," exclaimed the Marquis, greatly affected by this additional misfortune, so unexpectedly heaped upon his young protegé; "and give me my ambling palfrey; and haste forward, you knaves, to see what can be done to save the furniture, or to extinguish the fire-ride, you knaves, for your lives!"

The Master of Ravenswood, upon this assurance being solemnly reiterated, and notwithstanding his extreme wish to witness the last explosion, which was to ruin to the ground the mansion of his fathers, suffered himself to be dragged onward towards the village of Wolf's-hope, where not only the change house, but that of our well-known friend the cooper, were all prepared for reception of himself and his noble guest, with a liberality of provision which requires some explanation.

We omitted to mention in its place, that Lockhard, having fished out the truth concerning the mode by which Caleb had obtained the supplies for his banquet, The attendants bustled together, and began to the Lord Keeper, amused with the incident, and desistrike their horses with the spur, and call upon Caleb rous at the time to gratify Ravenswood, had recomto show them the road. But the voice of that careful mended the cooper of Wolf's-hope to the official situSeneschal was heard above the tumult, "O stop-ation under government, the prospect of which had sirs, stop-turn bridle, for the luve of mercy-add not reconciled him to the loss of his wild-fowl. Mr. loss of lives to the loss of warld's gear!-Thirty bar- Girder's preferment had occasioned a pleasing surrels of powther, landed out of a Dunkirk dogger in prise to old Caleb; for when, some days after his masthe auld lord's time-a' in the vau'ts of the auld ter's departure, he found himself absolutely compelled tower, the fire canna be far aff it, I trow-Lord's by some necessary business, to visit the fishing hamsake, to the right, lads-to the right-let's put the hill let, and was gliding like a ghost past the door of the atween us and peril,- -a wap wi' a corner-stane o' cooper, for fear of being summoned to give some Wolf's Crag wad defy the doctor!" account of the progress of the solicitation in his favour, or, more probably, that the inmates might upbraid him with the false hope he had held out upon the subject, he heard himself, not without some apprehension, summoned at once in treble, tenor, and bass,-a trio performed by the voices of Mrs. Girder, old Dame Loup-the-dike, and the goodman of the dwelling'Mr. Caleb-Mr. Caleb-Mr. Caleb Balderstone! I hope you arena ganging dry-lipped by our door, and we sae muckle indebted to you?"

It will readily be supposed that this annunciation hurried the Marquis and his attendants into the route which Caleb prescribed, dragging Ravenswood along with them, although there was much in the matter which he could not possibly comprehend. "Gunpowder!" he exclaimed, laying hold of Caleb, who in vain endeavoured to escape from him, "what gunpowder? How any quantity of powder could be in Wolf's Crag without my knowledge, I cannot possibly comprehend."

But I can," interrupted the Marquis, whispering him, "I can comprehend it thoroughly-for God's sake, ask him no more questions at present." "There it is, now,' said Caleb, extricating himself from his master, and adjusting his dress, "your honour will believe his lordship's honourable testimony -His lordship minds weel, how, in the year that him they ca'd King Willie died"

"Hush! hush, my good friend!" said the Marquis; "I shall satisfy your master upon that subject." "And the people at Wolf's-hope"-said Ravenswood, 'did none of them come to your assistance before the flame got so high?"

Ay did they, mony ane of them, the rapscallions!" said Caleb; "but truly I was in nae hurry to let them into the Tower, where there were so much plate and valuables."

"Confound you for an impudent liar!" said Ravenswood, in uncontrollable ire, "there was not a single ounce of".

Forby," said the butler, most irreverently raising his voice to a pitch which drowned his master's, "the fire made fast on us, owing to the store of tapestry and carved timmer in the banqueting ha', and the loons ran like scauded rats sae sune as they heard of the gunpouther.".

"I do entreat," said the Marquis to Ravenswood, you will ask him no more questions." "Only one, my lord-What has become of poor Mysie??

'Mysie?" said Caleb, "I had nae time to look about ony Mysie-she's in the tower, I'se warrant, biding her awful doom."

By heaven," said Ravenswood, "I do not understand all this! The life of a faithful old creature is at stake--my lord, I will be withheld no longer-I will at least ride up, and see whether the danger is as imminent as this old fool pretends."

This might be said ironically as well as in earnest. Caleb augured the worst, turned a deaf ear to the trio aforesaid, and was moving doggedly on, his ancient castor pulled over his brows, and his eyes bent on the ground, as if to count the flinty pebbles with which the rude pathway was causewayed. But on a sudden he found himself surrounded in his progress, like a stately merchantman in the Gut of Gibraltar (I hope the ladies will excuse the tarpaulin phrase) by three Algerine galleys.

"Gude guide us, Mr. Balderstone!" said Mrs. Girder.

"Wha wad hae thought it of an auld and kend friend!" said the mother.

"And no sae muckle as stay to receive our thanks," said the cooper himself, "and frae the like o' me that seldom offers them! I am sure I hope there's nae ill seed sawn between us, Mr. Balderstone-Ony man that has said to ye, I am no gratefu' for the situation of Queen's cooper, let me hae a whample at him wi' mine eatche*- that's a'."

My good friends-my dear friends," said Caleb, still doubting how the certainty of the matter might stand, "what needs a' this ceremony ?-ane tries to serve their friends, and sometimes they may happen to prosper, and sometimes to misgie-naething I care to be fashed wi' less than thanks--I never could bide them."

"Faith Mr. Balderstone, ye suld hae been fashed wi' few o' mine," said the downright man of staves and hoops, "if I had only your gude-will to thank ye for-I suld e'en hae set the guse, and the wild deukes, and the runlet of sack, to balance that account. Gudewill, man, is a geizen'd tub, that hauds in nae liquorbut gude deed's like the cask, tight, round, and sound, that will haud liquor for the king."

44

"Have ye no heard of our letter," said the motherin-law, making our John the Queen's cooper for certain?--and scarce a chield that had ever hammered gird upon tub but was applying for it?"

"Weel, then, as I live by bread," said Caleb, “Mysie Have I heard!!!" said Caleb, (who now found is weel and safe. I saw her out of the castle before I how the wind set,) with an accent of exceeding conleft it mysell. Was I ganging to forget an auld fellow-tempt at the doubt expressed-"Have I heard, quo'

servant?"

"What made you tell me the contrary this moment?" said his master.

"Did I tell you the contrary?" said Caleb; "then I maun hae been dreaming surely, or this awsome night has turned my judgment-but safe she is, and

she!!!"-and as he spoke he changed his shambling,
skulking, dodging pace, into a manly and authorita-
tive step, re-adjusted his cocked hat, and suffered his
brow to emerge from under it in all the pride of aris-
tocracy, like the sun from behind a cloud.
* Anglice, adze.