n full declamation, Juno, who held
him in awe, according to the remarkable instinct by which dogs instantly
discover those who like or dislike them, had peeped several times into
the room, and encountering nothing very forbidding in his aspect, had at
length presumed to introduce her full person; and finally, becoming bold
by impunity, she actually ate up Mr. Oldbuck's toast, as, looking
first at one then at another of his audience, he repeated, with
self-complacency,

"Weave the warp and weave the woof,--

"You remember the passage in the Fatal Sisters, which, by the way, is
not so fine as in the original--But, hey-day! my toast has vanished!--I
see which way--Ah, thou type of womankind! no wonder they take offence
at thy generic appellation!"--(So saying, he shook his fist at Juno, who
scoured out of the parlour.)--"However, as Jupiter, according to Homer,
could not rule Juno in heaven, and as Jack Muirhead, according to Hector
M'Intyre, has been equally unsuccessful on earth, I suppose she must
have her own way." And this mild censure the brother and sister justly
accounted a full pardon for Juno's offences, and sate down well pleased
to the morning meal.

When breakfast was over, the Antiquary proposed to his nephew to go
down with him to attend the funeral. The soldier pleaded the want of a
mourning habit.

"O, that does not signify--your presence is all that is requisite. I
assure you, you will see something that will entertain--no, that's an
improper phrase--but that will interest you, from the resemblances which
I will point out betwixt popular customs on such occasions and those of
the ancients."

"Heaven forgive me!" thought M'Intyre;--"I shall certainly misbehave, and
lose all the credit I have so lately and accidentally gained."

When they set out, schooled as he was by the warning and entreating
looks of his sister, the soldier made his resolution strong to give no
offence by evincing inattention or impatience. But our best resolutions
are frail, when opposed to our predominant inclinations. Our
Antiquary,--to leave nothing unexplained, had commenced with the funeral
rites of the ancient Scandinavians, when his nephew interrupted him, in
a discussion upon the "age of hills," to remark that a large sea-gull,
which flitted around them, had come twice within shot. This error being
acknowledged and pardoned, Oldbuck resumed his disquisition.

"These are circumstances you ought to atten