the
vaults,--and the cleipy auld wife with the lang stick,--we found that we
had still half an hour to spare; so took a stroll into the Kirkyard, to
see if we could find out if any of the martyrs had been buried there-away-
abouts.

We saw a good few head-stones, you may make no doubt, both ancient and
modern; but nothing out of the course of nature; so, the day being
pleasant, Mr Farrel and me sat down on a throughstane, below an old
hawthorn, and commenced chatting on the Pentland Hills--the river
Esk--Penicuik--Glencorse--and all the rest of the beautiful country
within sight. A mooly auld skull was lying among the grass, and Peter,
as he spoke, was aye stirring it about with his stick.

"I never touched a dead man's bones in my life," said I to Peter, "nor
would I for a sixpence. Who might that have belonged to, now, I wonder?
Maybe to a baker or a tailor, in his day and generation, like you and I,
Peter; or maybe to ane of the great Sinclairs with their coats-of-mail,
that the auld wife was cracking so crousely about?"

"Deil may care," said Peter; "but are you really frighted to touch a
skull, Mansie? You would make a bad doctor, I'm doubting, then; to say
nothing of a resurrection man."

"Doctor! I would not be a doctor for all the gold and silver on the
walls of Solomon's temple"--

"Yet you would think the young doctors suck in their trade with their
mother's milk, and could cut off one another's heads as fast as look at
you.--Speaking of skulls," added Peter, "I mind when my father lived in
the under-flat of the three-story house at the top of Dalkeith street,
that the Misses Skinflints occupied the middle story, and Doctor
Chickenweed had the one above, with the garrets, in which was the
laboratory.

"Weel, ye observe, in getting to the shop, it was not necessary to knock
at the Doctor's door, but just proceed up the narrow wooden stair, facing
the top of which was the shop-door, which, for light to the customer's
feet, was generally allowed to stand open.

"For a long time, the Doctor had heard the most unearthly noises in his
house--as if a thunderbolt was in the habit of coming in at one of the
sky-lights, and walking down stairs; and the Misses Skinflints had more
than once nearly got their door carried off the hinges; so they had not
the life of dogs, for constant startings and surprises. At first they
had no faith in ghosts; but, in the course of time, they came to be alike
doubtful on tha