ith this moral: "You see, birkie, it is nae
chancy thing to tak' a stranger traveller for a guide when you are in an
uncouth land."

"I should not have made that inference," said I. "Your grandfather's
adventure was fortunate for himself, whom it saves from ruin and
distress; and fortunate for his landlord."

"Ay, but they had baith to sup the sauce o' 't sooner or later," said
Wandering Willie; "what was fristed wasna forgiven. Sir John died before
he was much over threescore; and it was just like a moment's illness.
And for my gudesire, though he departed in fulness of life, yet there
was my father, a yauld man of forty-five, fell down betwixt the stilts
of his plough, and rase never again, and left nae bairn but me, a puir,
sightless, fatherless, motherless creature, could neither work nor want.
Things gaed weel aneugh at first; for Sir Regwald Redgauntlet, the only
son of Sir John, and the oye of auld Sir Robert, and, wae's me! the last
of the honourable house, took the farm aff our hands, and brought me
into his household to have care of me. My head never settled since I
lost him; and if I say another word about it, deil a bar will I have
the heart to play the night. Look out, my gentle chap," he resumed, in
a different tone; "ye should see the lights at Brokenburn Glen by this
time."

THE GLENMUTCHKIN RAILWAY, By Professor Aytoun

[The following tale appeared in "Blackwood's Magazine" for October,
1845. It was intended by the writer as a sketch of some of the more
striking features of the railway mania (then in full progress throughout
Great Britain), as exhibited in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Although bearing
the appearance of a burlesque, it was in truth an accurate delineation
(as will be acknowledged by many a gentleman who had the misfortune to
be "out in the Forty-five"); and subsequent disclosures have shown that
it was in no way exaggerated.

Although the "Glenmutchkin line" was purely imaginary, and was not
intended by the writer to apply to any particular scheme then before the
public, it was identified in Scotland with more than one reckless and
impracticable project; and even the characters introduced were supposed
to be typical of personages who had attained some notoriety in the
throng of speculation. Any such resemblances must be considered as
fortuitous; for the writer cannot charge himself with the discourtesy of
individual satire or allusion.]

I was confoundedly hard up. My patrimony,