house
were I to stir up strife now that we are supposed to be all one land."

"Ay, by my troth," said Will of Fauldshope, "the fat would be in the
fire if we were to ride into Cumberland nowadays; but, Master, the
Warden hath no right to interfere with lawful quarrels. There is the
Laird o' Elibank, for instance, old Sir Juden. Deil take me if anyone
could blame us if we paid him a visit. For all the world knows how often
some cows, or a calf or two, have vanished on a dark night from the
hillsides at Harden, and though a Murray hath never yet been ta'en
red-handed, it is easy to know where the larders o' Elibank get their
plenishing. Turn about is fair play, say I, and now that the pastures at
Harden are empty, 'tis time that we thought of taking our revenge. Sir
Juden was a wily man in his youth, and sly as a pole-cat, but men say
that nowadays he hath grown doited,[4] and does nought but sit with his
wife and his three ugly daughters from morning till night. All the same,
he hath managed to feather his nest right well. 'Twas told me at
Candlemas that he hath no less than three hundred fat cattle grazing in
the meadows that lie around Elibank."

[Footnote 4: In his dotage.]

Willie o' Harden slapped his thigh.

"That settles the matter," he cried, with a ring in his voice at the
thought of the adventure that lay before him. "Three hundred kye are far
too many for one old man to herd. Let him turn his mind to his three
ill-faured[5] daughters, whom no man will wed because of their looks.
This very night we will ride over into Ettrick, and lift a wheen[6] o'
them. My father's Tower of Oakwood lies not far from Elibank, and when
once we have driven the beasts into the Oakwood byres, 'twill take old
Sir Juden all his time to prove that they ever belonged to him."

[Footnote 5: Plain-looking.]

[Footnote 6: Few.]

Late that afternoon Sir Juden Murray was having a daunder[7] in the
low-lying haughs which lay along the banks of the Tweed, close to his
old tower. His hands were clasped behind his back, under his coat tails,
and his head was sunk low on his breast. He appeared to be deep in
meditation, and so indeed he was. There was a matter which had been
pressing heavily on his mind for some time, and it troubled him more
every day.

[Footnote 7: Gentle walk.]

The fact was, that it was a sore anxiety to him how he was going to
provide for his three daughters, for Providence had endowed them with
such ve