ame a pack o' weans to be fighting and skirling
through the house in my auld days, and to take wing and flee aff like
yoursell, whenever they were asked to serve a turn about the town?"

"I have no thoughts of ever marrying," answered Henry.

"Hear till him now!" said the housekeeper. "It's a shame to hear a douce
young lad speak in that way, since a' the warld kens that they maun
either marry or do waur."

"Haud your peace, Alison," said her master; "and you, Harry," (he added
more mildly,) "put this nonsense out o' your head--this comes o' letting
ye gang a-sodgering for a day--mind ye hae nae siller, lad, for ony sic
nonsense plans."

"I beg your pardon, sir, my wants shall be very few; and would you please
to give me the gold chain, which the Margrave gave to my father after the
battle of Lutzen"--"Mercy on us! the gowd chain?" exclaimed his uncle.

"The chain of gowd!" re-echoed the housekeeper, both aghast with
astonishment at the audacity of the proposal.

--"I will keep a few links," continued the young man, "to remind me of
him by whom it was won, and the place where he won it," continued Morton;
"the rest shall furnish me the means of following the same career in
which my father obtained that mark of distinction."

"Mercifu' powers!" exclaimed the governante, "my master wears it every
Sunday!"

"Sunday and Saturday," added old Milnwood, "whenever I put on my black
velvet coat; and Wylie Mactrickit is partly of opinion it's a kind of
heir-loom, that rather belangs to the head of the house than to the
immediate descendant. It has three thousand links; I have counted them a
thousand times. It's worth three hundred pounds sterling."

"That is more than I want, sir; if you choose to give me the third part
of the money, and five links of the chain, it will amply serve my
purpose, and the rest will be some slight atonement for the expense and
trouble I have put you to."

"The laddie's in a creel!" exclaimed his uncle. "O, sirs, what will
become o' the rigs o' Milnwood when I am dead and gane! He would fling
the crown of Scotland awa, if he had it."

"Hout, sir," said the old housekeeper, "I maun e'en say it's partly your
ain faut. Ye maunna curb his head ower sair in neither; and, to be sure,
since he has gane doun to the Howff, ye maun just e'en pay the lawing."

"If it be not abune twa dollars, Alison," said the old gentleman, very
reluctantly.

"I'll settle it myself wi'Niel Blane, the first time I