ve often girned that he sud fecht
awa' for us a', and maybe dee before he kent that he had githered mair
luve than ony man in the Glen.

"'A' 'm prood tae hae met ye,' says Sir George, an' him the greatest
doctor in the land. 'Yir an honour tae oor profession.'

"Hillocks, a' wudna hae missed it for twenty notes," said James Soutar,
cynic in ordinary to the parish of Drumtochty.

WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE, By Sir Walter Scott

"Honest folks like me! How do ye ken whether I am honest, or what I am?
I may be the deevil himsell for what ye ken, for he has power to come
disguised like an angel of light; and, besides, he is a prime fiddler.
He played a sonata to Corelli, ye ken."

There was something odd in this speech, and the tone in which it was
said. It seemed as if my companion was not always in his constant mind,
or that he was willing to try if he could frighten me. I laughed at the
extravagance of his language, however, and asked him in reply if he
was fool enough to believe that the foul fiend would play so silly a
masquerade.

"Ye ken little about it--little about it," said the old man, shaking his
head and beard, and knitting his brows. "I could tell ye something about
that."

What his wife mentioned of his being a tale-teller as well as a musician
now occurred to me; and as, you know, I like tales of superstition, I
begged to have a specimen of his talent as we went along.

"It is very true," said the blind man, "that when I am tired of scraping
thairm or singing ballants I whiles make a tale serve the turn among
the country bodies; and I have some fearsome anes, that make the auld
carlines shake on the settle, and the bits o' bairns skirl on their
minnies out frae their beds. But this that I am going to tell you was
a thing that befell in our ain house in my father's time--that is, my
father was then a hafflins callant; and I tell it to you, that it may
be a lesson to you that are but a young thoughtless chap, wha ye draw up
wi' on a lonely road; for muckle was the dool and care that came o' 't
to my gudesire."

He commenced his tale accordingly, in a distinct narrative tone of
voice, which he raised and depressed with considerable skill; at times
sinking almost into a whisper, and turning his clear but sightless
eyeballs upon my face, as if it had been possible for him to witness the
impression which his narrative made upon my features. I will not spare
a syllable of it, although it be of the lon