h'ard the thing, whatever it was, an'
syne whan the bairns war waukit up, an' aye the romage, noo i' this
room, noo i' that, sae that the leevin' wud be cryin' as lood as the
deid, though they could ill mak sic a din, it was beyond a' beirin',
an' the maister made up his min' to flit at ance, come o' 't what micht!

"For, as I oucht to hae tellt ye, he had written to the owner o' the
hoose, that was my ain maister--for it wasna a hair o' use sayin'
onything further to the agent; he only leuch, an' declaret it maun be
some o' his ain folk was playin' tricks upon him--which it angert him
to hear, bein' as impossible as it was fause; sae straucht awa' to his
lan'lord he wrote, as I say; but as he was travellin' aboot on the
continent, he supposed either the letter had not reached him, an' never
wud reach him or he was shelterin' himsel' under the idea they wud
think he had never had it, no wantin' to move in the matter. But the
varra day he had made up his min' that nothing should make him spend
another week in the house, for Monday nights were always the worst,
there cam a letter from the gentleman, sayin' that only that same hoor
that he was writin' had he received the maister's letter; an' he was
sorry he had not had it before, but prayed him to put up with things
till he got to him, and he would start at the farthest in two days
more, and would set the thing right in less time than it would take to
tell him what was amiss.--A strange enough letter to be sure! Mr.
Harper, that was their butler, told me he had read every word of it!
And so, as, not to mention the terrors of the nicht, the want of rest
was like to ruin us altogether, we were all on the outlook for the
appearance of oor promised deliverer, sae cock-sure o' settin' things
straucht again!

"Weel, at last, an' that was in a varra feow days, though they luikit
lang to some i' that hoose, he appearit--a nice luikin' gentleman, wi'
sae sweet a smile it wasna hard to believe whate'er he tellt ye. An' he
had a licht airy w'y wi' him, that was to us oppresst craturs strangely
comfortin', ill as it was to believe he could ken what had been goin'
on, an' treat it i' that fashion! Hooever,--an' noo, my lady, an' Mr.
Grant, I hae to tell ye what the butler told me, for I wasna present to
hear for mysel'. Maybe he wouldn't have told me, but that he wasn't an
old man, though twice my age, an' seemt to have taken a likin' to me,
though it never came to anything; an' as