tting in full of importance, as if to say, "He's
all right, he'll be here." One morning James came without him. He had
left Edinburgh very early, and in coming near Auchindinny, at a lonely
part of the road, a man sprang out on him, and demanded his money.
James, who was a cool hand, said, "Weel a weel, let me get it," and
stepping back, he said to Rab, "Speak till him, my man." In an instant
Rab was standing over him, threatening strangulation if he stirred.
James pushed on, leaving Rab in charge; he looked back, and saw that
every attempt to rise was summarily put down. As he was telling Ailie
the story, up came Rab with that great swing of his. It turned out that
the robber was a Howgate lad, the worthless son of a neighbor, and Rab
knowing him had let him cheaply off; the only thing, which was seen by a
man from a field, was, that before letting him rise, he quenched (_pro
tempore_) the fire of the eyes of the ruffian, by a familiar Gulliverian
application of Hydraulics, which I need not further particularize.
James, who did not know the way to tell an untruth, or embellish
anything, told me this as what he called "a fact _positeevely_."

WASP

Was a dark brindled bull-terrier, as pure in blood as Cruiser or Wild
Dayrell. She was brought by my brother from Otley, in the West Riding.
She was very handsome, fierce, and gentle, with a small, compact,
finely-shaped head, and a pair of wonderful eyes,--as full of fire and
of softness as Grisi's; indeed she had to my eye a curious look of that
wonderful genius--at once wild and fond. It was a fine sight to see her
on the prowl across Bowden Moor, now cantering with her nose down, now
gathered up on the top of a dyke, and with erect ears, looking across
the wild like a moss-trooper out on business, keen and fell. She could
do everything it became a dog to do, from killing an otter or a polecat,
to watching and playing with a baby, and was as docile to her master as
she was surly to all else. She was not quarrelsome, but "being in," she
would have pleased Polonius as much, as in being "ware of entrance." She
was never beaten, and she killed on the spot several of the country
bullies who came out upon her when following her master in his rounds.
She generally sent them off howling with one snap, but if this was not
enough, she made an end of it.

But it was as a mother that she shone; and to see the gypsy, Hagar-like
creature nursing her occasional Ishmael--playing with