gainst
my grandfather, he held on, for all that his trade fell away; and
finally he had my grandfather arrested for debt, though you'll
understand, sir, that he was owing Stewart nothing that he ought to
pay when he didn't feel able.

"In those times prisoners for debt was taken to jail in Cornwall, and
if they had friends to give bail that they would not go beyond the
posts that was around the sixteen acres nearest the jail walls, the
prisoners could go where they liked on that ground. This was called
'the privilege of the limits.' The limits, you'll understand, wass
marked by cedar posts painted white about the size of hitching-posts.

"The whole settlement was ready to go bail for my grandfather if he
wanted it, and for the health of him he needed to be in the open air,
and so he gave Tuncan-Macdonnell of the Greenfields, and AEneas
Macdonald of the Sandfields, for his bail, and he promised, on his
Hielan' word of honor, not to go beyond the posts. With that he went
where he pleased, only taking care that he never put even the toe of
his foot beyond a post, for all that some prisoners of the limits
would chump ofer them and back again, or maybe swing round them,
holding by their hands.

"Efery day the neighbors would go into Cornwall to give my grandfather
the good word, and they would offer to pay Tougal Stewart for the
other half of the plough, only that vexed my grandfather, for he was
too proud to borrow, and, of course, every day he felt less and less
able to pay on account of him having to hire a man to be doing the
spring ploughing and seeding and making the kale-yard.

"All this time, you'll mind, Tougal Stewart had to pay five shillings
a week for my grandfather's keep, the law being so that if the debtor
swore he had not five pound's worth of property to his name, then the
creditor had to pay the five shillings, and, of course, my grandfather
had nothing to his name after he gave the bill of sale to Alexander
Frazer. A great diversion it was to my grandfather to be reckoning up
that if he lived as long as his father, that was hale and strong at
ninety-six, Tougal would need to pay five or six hundred pounds for
him, and there was only two pound five shillings to be paid on the
plough.

"So it was like that all summer, my grandfather keeping heartsome,
with the neighbors coming in so steady to bring him the news of the
settlement. There he would sit, just inside one of the posts, for to
pass his jokes