en Tam and the lass cam by; and what
should the lassie do but mock with laughter at the sant's devotions? He
rose and lookit at the twa o' them, and Tam's knees knoitered thegether
at the look of him. But whan he spak, it was mair in sorrow than in
anger. "Poor thing, poor thing!" says he, and it was the lass he lookit
at, "I hear you skirl and laugh," he says, "but the Lord has a deid shot
prepared for you, and at that surprising judgment ye shall skirl but the
ae time!" Shortly thereafter she was daundering on the craigs wi'
twa-three sodgers, and it was a blawy day. There cam a gowst of wind,
claught her by the coats, and awa' wi' her, bag and baggage. And it was
remarkit by the sodgers that she gied but the ae skirl.

Nae doubt this judgment had some weicht upon Tam Dale; but it passed
again, and him nane the better. Ae day he was flyting wi' anither
sodger-lad. "Deil hae me!" quo' Tam, for he was a profane swearer. And
there was Peden glowering at him, gash an' waefu'; Peden wi' his lang
chafts an' luntin' een, the maud happit about his kist, and the hand of
him held out wi' the black nails upon the finger-nebs--for he had nae
care of the body. "Fy, fy, poor man!" cries he, "the poor fool man!
_Deil hae me_, quo' he; an' I see the deil at his oxter." The
conviction of guilt and grace cam in on Tam like the deep sea; he flang
doun the pike that was in his hands--"I will nae mair lift arms against
the cause o' Christ!" says he, and was as gude's word. There was a sair
fyke in the beginning, but the governor, seeing him resolved, gied him
his dischairge, and he went and dwallt and merried in North Berwick, and
had aye a gude name with honest folk frae that day on.

It was in the year seeventeen hunner and sax that the Bass cam in the
hands o' the Da'rymples, and there was twa men soucht the chairge of it.
Baith were weel qualified, for they had baith been sodgers in the
garrison, and kennt the gate to handle solans, and the seasons and
values of them. Forbye that they were baith--or they baith
seemed--earnest professors and men of comely conversation. The first of
them was just Tam Dale, my faither. The second was ane Lapraik, whom the
folk ca'd Tod Lapraik maistly, but whether for his name or his nature I
could never hear tell. Weel, Tam gaed to see Lapraik upon this business,
and took me, that was a toddlin' laddie, by the hand. Tod had his
dwallin' in the lang loan benorth the kirkyaird. It's a dark, uncanny
loan,