ill, in ilk win' that blew. But at the last, oot o' sorrow, an'
respec' for the deid, hooever he dee'd, his auld maister sent quaietly
ae mirk nicht, an' had the lave o' the banes taen doon an' laid i' the
earth.

"'But frae that moment, think ye there was ony peace i' the hoose? A
clankin' o' chains got up, an' a howlin', an' a compleenin' an' a
creakin' like i' the win'--sic a stramash a'thegither, that the hoose
was no fit to be leevit in whiles, though it was sometimes waur nor
ither times, an' some thoucht it had to do wi' the airt the win' blew:
aboot that I ken naething. But it gaed on like that for months, maybe
years,'--Mr. Harper wasna sure hoo lang the gentleman said--'till the
auld man 'maist wished himsel' in o' the grave an' oot o' the trouble.

"'At last ae day cam an auld man to see him--no sae auld as himsel',
but ane he had kenned whan they wur at the college thegither. An' this
was a man that had travelled greatly, an' was weel learnt in a heap o'
things ordinar' fowk, that gies themsel's to the lan', an' the growin'
o' corn, an' beasts, ir no likely to ken mickle aboot. He saw his auld
freen' was in trouble, an' didna carry his age calm-like as was
nat'ral, an' sae speirt him what was the matter. An' he told him the
whole story, frae the hangin' to the bangin'. "Weel," said the learnit
man, whan he had h'ard a', "gien ye'll tak my advice, ye'll jist sen'
an' howk up the heid, an' tak it intil the hoose wi' ye, an' lat it
bide there whaur it was used sae lang to be;--do that, an' it's my
opinion ye'll hear nae mair o' sic unruly gangin's on." The auld
gentleman tuik the advice, kennin' no better. But it was the richt
advice, for frae that moment the romour was ower, they had nae mair o'
't. They laid the heid in a decent bit box i' the cellar, an' there it
remaint, weel content there to abide the day o' that jeedgment that'll
set mony anither jeedgment to the richt-aboot; though what pleesur
could be intil that cellar mair nor intil a hole i' the earth, is a
thing no for me to say! So wi' that generation there was nae mair
trouble.

"'But i' the coorse o' time cam first ane an' syne anither, wha forgot,
maybe leuch at, the haill affair, an' didna believe a word o' the same.
But they're but fules that gang again the experrience o' their
forbeirs!--what wud ye hae but they wud beery the heid! An' what wud
come o' that but an auld dismay het up again! Up gat the din, the
rampaugin', the clankin', an'