ough handsome, features, and as he
proceeded to spread the board, and arrange the trenchers, with salt,
spices, and other condiments--to discharge, in short, the duties of
a modern domestic, which the custom of the time imposed upon all
apprentices--he was obviously disgusted and indignant with the mean
office imposed upon him.

The Fair Maid of Perth looked with some anxiety at him, as if
apprehensive that his evident sullenness might increase her father's
displeasure; but it was not till her eyes had sought out his for a
second time that Conachar condescended to veil his dissatisfaction,
and throw a greater appearance of willingness and submission into the
services which he was performing.

And here we must acquaint our reader that, though the private
interchange of looks betwixt Catharine Glover and the young mountaineer
indicated some interest on the part of the former in the conduct of the
latter, it would have puzzled the strictest observer to discover whether
that feeling exceeded in degree what might have been felt by a young
person towards a friend and inmate of the same age, with whom she had
lived on habits of intimacy.

"Thou hast had a long journey, son Henry," said Glover, who had always
used that affectionate style of speech, though no ways akin to the young
artisan; "ay, and hast seen many a river besides Tay, and many a fair
bigging besides St. Johnston."

"But none that I like half so well, and none that are half so much worth
my liking," answered the smith. "I promise you, father, that, when
I crossed the Wicks of Baiglie, and saw the bonny city lie stretched
fairly before me like a fairy queen in romance, whom the knight finds
asleep among a wilderness of flowers, I felt even as a bird when it
folds its wearied wings to stoop down on its own nest."

"Aha! so thou canst play the maker [old Scottish for poet] yet?" said
the glover. "What, shall we have our ballets and our roundels again? our
lusty carols for Christmas, and our mirthful springs to trip it round
the maypole?"

"Such toys there may be forthcoming, father," said Henry Smith, "though
the blast of the bellows and the clatter of the anvil make but coarse
company to lays of minstrelsy; but I can afford them no better, since I
must mend my fortune, though I mar my verses."

"Right again--my own son just," answered the glover; "and I trust thou
hast made a saving voyage of it?"

"Nay, I made a thriving one, father: I sold the steel hab