. She rubbed her eyes and blinked with astonishment when she saw her
husband mounted on a good black horse, and driving two fat milk cows
before him.

Like everyone else, she had always counted him a fool, and had never
looked for much help from him. So the loss of the three cows had been a
serious matter to her, for the money which their milk brought had done
much towards keeping up the house, and clothing the children.

"Here, woman," he cried joyously, leaping from his horse, and emptying
the gold out of his pockets into her apron. "Thou madest a great to-do
over thy coverlets, but I trow that forty pounds of good red money will
pay for them fully, and the three cows which we lost were but thin,
starved creatures, compared with these two that I have brought back, and
here is a good horse into the bargain."

It all seemed too good to be true, and Dick's wife rubbed her eyes once
more. "Take care that they be not taken from thee," she said. "Methinks
the Armstrongs will demand vengeance."

"They will not get it from My Lord of Scroope," answered Dick, "for
'twas he who gave me leave to go and steal from them. But mayhap we live
too near the Borders for our own comfort, now that we are so rich. When
a man hath made his fortune by his wits, as I have, he deserves a little
peace in his old age. What wouldst thou think of going further South
into Westmoreland, and taking up house near thy mother's kinsfolk?"

"I would think 'twas the wisest plan that ever entered that silly pate
of thine," answered his wife, who had never liked to live in such an
unsettled region.

So they packed up their belongings, and, getting leave from Lord
Scroope, they went to live at Burghunder-Stanmuir, where they passed for
quite rich and clever people.

THE HEIR OF LINNE

"Lithe and listen, gentlemen,
To sing a song I will beginne;
It is of a lord of faire Scotland,
Which was the unthrifty heire of Linne."

There was trouble in the ancient Castle of Linne. Upstairs in his
low-roofed, oak-panelled chamber the old lord lay dying, and the
servants whispered to one another, that, when all was over, and he was
gone, there would be many changes at the old place. For he had been a
good master, kind and thoughtful to his servants, and generous to the
poor. But his only son was a different kind of man, who thought only of
his own enjoyment; and John o' the Scales, the steward on the estate,
was a hard task-master,