ides. Local affairs came to be discussed; and, as
Duncan seemed curious to gain information concerning the farms, and the
character of the farmers in the neighbourhood, Elspeth, in her
endeavours to satisfy his curiosity, told him all she knew of Mr. Black
and Mr. Goosequill, with their supposed schemes for the ejectment of
William Chrighton.

It was now the latter end of October, and still the harvest was far
from being completed. The watch-dog had died, and the horses began to
exhibit symptoms of lameness, which were the more distressing, that the
securing of the crop depended entirely upon their ability to labour. Two
of the cattle were brought home, by the boy who herded them, in a
diseased state, and the same evening one of them died. On the following
morning, one of the horses was found unable to rise; and, before noon,
he was dead also. It seemed as if the fates had conspired to ruin the
old farmer and his family; day after day, horses, cattle, and other live
stock, sickened and died; and, in a short time, he found himself without
the means of prosecuting the labours of so precarious a season, with any
prospect of success. To add to his distress, a summons was now served
against him for fifty pounds, "which," as that document affirmed, "he
still owed, and had refused to pay to the creditors of Mr. Rickledyke,
for the building of his barn, &c." Mr. Rickledyke was the contractor who
had been employed on this occasion; the whole of the money had not been
paid when he became bankrupt; and, though the old farmer was perfectly
certain that he had paid it, when he recollected that the bankrupt was a
friend of Mr. Goosequill's, and that the money had been paid in his
office, he felt convinced that the whole was a trick, intended to
embarrass if not to ruin him. He recollected farther, that, as a _stamp_
could not, at the time, be obtained, for giving him a discharge, he had
left the place without any voucher for the payment of the debt, beyond
the testimony of two witnesses who were now dead; and thus he had no
alternative but to pay it again.

The appearance of the law officers, at Sunnybraes, gave rise to a
report, which was industriously spread, that William Chrighton was
either a bankrupt or about to become one; and every individual who had
the slightest claim upon him, came hurrying in with distraints and
summonses; and, to complete the catastrophe, on Saturday, about noon,
Mr. Goosequill made his appearance, with