a brae where it blooms for ever.

A few minutes after Andrew had concluded his song, the fair daughter of
their hostess entered the house. Andrew's first glance bespoke the
lover, and the smile with which she returned it showed that the young
fisherman and cadger was not an unaccepted wooer.

"By my sooth, fair maiden," said the stranger, "and thy sweet face
doesna belie its fame; admiration fails in painting the loveliness of
thy glowing cheeks, and thine een might make a moonbeam blush!"

He seemed practised in the art of gallantry, and poured into her ear
other compliments in a similar strain. She hung her head, and turned it
aside from him, as a woman will when flattered, or when she wishes to be
flattered, but she did not rise to depart; and he felt that the incense
which he offered to her beauty was not unacceptable. But the words and
the attentions of the stranger were as daggers in the ears, and as
wormwood in the heart of Andrew.

"The mischief rive his smooth tongue out o' his head!" thought Andrew;
"but though I hae nae chance in speaking balderdash wi' him, and though
he did thraw me (and it was maybe by an unmanly quirk after a'), I'll
let her see, if he has the glibest tongue, wha has the manliest arm!"

Neither love nor liquor, however, can allay the cravings of a hungry
stomach, and the stranger (who evidently beguiled Andrew to drink more
than the portion that ought to have fallen to him) called for something
to eat, by way of a relish.

"O sir," said Nancy Hewitt, their hostess, "I'm verra sorry an' vexed
that I hae naething in the house that I could gie ye--naething o'
kitchen kind but the haddocks which Andrew left this forenoon; an' I hae
been sae thrang wi' folk gaun back an' forret to Lamberton, that they're
no gutted yet. But if ye could tak them, ye are welcome to them."

"Gut two, then, good dame, and prepare them," said the stranger.

"I doubt, sir, twa winna do," said she, "for they're but sma'--I had
better gut thrie."

"Certainly, _gut thrie_," said Andrew; "I brought the stranger in--and
what is a haddie, or what are they worth?" for Andrew was anxious that
the attention of his companion should be turned to anything, were it
only withdrawn from Janet's face.

"You are a generous-hearted fellow," said the stranger, "and _gut thrie_
shall I call you, if we meet again."

Having therefore partaken of his repast, he proposed that they should
again fill the stoup to friendship's gro