had but an ill-plenished house to take home a
wife to--that I had neither meal in the press, kye in the byre, nor oxen
in the court-yard. His own mailing was but poorly provided at the time;
and had he looked at hame, he hardly would have ventured to throw a
reflection at me.

"'Weel, sir, said I to him, 'I dinna deny but what you say is true; but
I have supple heels, a ready hand, a good sword, and a stout heart, and
I ken a canny byre where there are threescore o' sleak beasties, weel
worth the harrying.'

"'Now ye speak like a lad of sense and mettle,' said the old man; 'and
on the first night that ye bring them hame, the plumpest and the fattest
o' them shall be slaughtered for the marriage-feast of you and Barbara.'

"Then up spoke your mother's brother, and a winsome young man he was as
ye would have found between Tweed and Tyne; and 'Jonathan,' says he to
me, 'when ye gang to drive hame the herd, I shall go wi' thee, for the
sake of a bout with the bold, bragging Cunningham, of Simprin--for I
will lay thee my sword 'gainst a tailor's bodkin, it is him ye mean.'

"'It is him, Duncan,' said I--for your uncle's name was Duncan--'though
weel do I ken that he keeps them strongly guarded, and blood will flow,
and weapons be broken, before we get them into our possession. But gie
me your hand, my lad--we two shall be a match for him and a' his
backing. What ye take shall be your own, and what I take, your sister's;
and your faither shanna cast up my toom bink and my ill-stocked
mailing.'

"'Weel spoken, bairns!' cried your grandfaither, who had been a first
hand at such ploys in his young days; 'weel spoken! I'm glad to see that
the spirits of the young generation arena gaun backward; though, since
King Jamie gaed to be King in London, as weel as at Edinburgh, our laws
are only fit for a few women, and everything is done that can be done to
banish manhood, and make it a crime.'

"'Go upon no such an errand,' said your mother to both of us; 'for there
is blood upon baith your brows, and there is death in your path.'

"'Havers, lassie!' cried her faither angrily; 'are ye at your randering
again?--what blood do ye see on their brows mair than I do, or what
death can ye perceive in their path? All your mother's Highland kinsfolk
were never able to throw their second-sighted glamour into my een, and
my own bairn shanna.

"'Call it randers, or what ye will,' answered she; 'but I see it plain
as I see the grey hairs