- it, it won't do,--

"'My spinnin' wheel is auld and stiff,
The rock o't wunna stand, sir;
To keep the temper-pin in tiff
Employs ower aft my hand, sir.'

I am off the fang. I can make nothing of 'Waverley' to-day; I'll awa'
to Marjorie. Come wi' me, Maida, you thief." The great creature rose
slowly, and the pair were off, Scott taking a _maud_ (a plaid) with him.
"White as a frosted plum-cake, by jingo!" said he, when he got to the
street. Maida gamboled and whisked among the snow, and his master strode
across to Young Street, and through it to 1 North Charlotte Street, to
the house of his dear friend, Mrs. William Keith, of Corstorphine Hill;
niece of Mrs. Keith of Ravelston, of whom he said at her death, eight
years after, "Much tradition, and that of the best, has died with this
excellent old lady, one of the few persons whose spirits, and
_cleanliness_ and freshness of mind and body, made old age lovely and
desirable."

Sir Walter was in that house almost every day, and had a key, so in he
and the hound went, shaking themselves in the lobby. "Marjorie!
Marjorie!" shouted her friend, "where are ye, my bonnie wee croodlin'
doo?" In a moment a bright, eager child of seven was in his arms, and he
was kissing her all over. Out came Mrs. Keith. "Come your ways in,
Wattie." "No, not now. I am going to take Marjorie wi' me, and you may
come to your tea in Duncan Roy's sedan, and bring the bairn home in your
lap." "Tak' Marjorie, and it _on-ding o' snaw_!" said Mrs. Keith. He
said to himself, "On-ding,'--that's odd,--that is the very word. Hoot,
awa'! look here," and he displayed the corner of his plaid, made to hold
lambs [the true shepherd's plaid, consisting of two breadths sewed
together, and uncut at one end, making a poke or _cul-de-sac_]. "Tak'
your lamb," said she, laughing at the contrivance, and so the Pet was
first well happit up, and then put, laughing silently, into the plaid
neuk, and the shepherd strode off with his lamb,--Maida gamboling
through the snow, and running races in her mirth.

Didn't he face "the angry airt," and make her bield his bosom, and into
his own room with her, and lock the door, and out with the warm rosy
little wifie, who took it all with great composure! There the two
remained for three or more hours, making the house ring with their
laughter; you can fancy the big man's and Maidie's laugh. Having made
the fire cheery, he set her down in his ample chair, a