forget an auld fellow-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 ne'er a living soul in the castle, a' the better for them:
they wau have gotten an unco heezy."

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 Lord Keeper, amused with the incident, and desirous at
the time to gratify Ravenswood, had recommended the cooper of Wolf''s
Hope to the official situation under government the prospect of which
had reconciled him to the loss of his wild-fowl. Mr. Girder's preferment
had occasioned a pleasing surprise to old Caleb; for when, some days
after his master's departure, he found himself absolutely compelled, by
some necessary business, to visit the fishing hamlet, and was gliding
like a ghost past the door of the cooper, for fear of being summoned to
give some 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-Dyke, and the
goodman of the dwelling--"Mr. Caleb!--Mr. Caleb Balderstone! I hope
ye arena ganging dry-lipped by our door, and we sae muckle indebted to
you?"

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
th