d his outflung arm struck his mother
in the face.

"Oh, oh," she cried; "will you turn on me too, and leave me for
farmer's wenches and tinker women like the lave of your folk?"

The gipsy lass was on her knees at the bedside.

"Lady," she cries, and her face was finely aglow, "nae wonder ye
grieved aboot the colour o' the bairn's hair. Are ye a' Dan mad?"
Then when she saw the anger in the mother's eyes she cries--

"Ye'll maybe be in a mood to listen to the truth now."

"I'm in a fine mood to have ye whipped from my doors, ye
shameless . . ."

"Ay, shameless, madam, if I love I'll be that, but if I have a man I'll
share him wi' nane, and you'll not be yourself to be believing these
false tales; and you, Betty, I had thought ye had seen sorrow enough
without brimming your cup over. It's true I left a wean sleeping in
the sweet hay; was there harm in that? She's lain wi' me in the stable
lofts and outlying barns these many nights, but the wean is nane o'
mine. It's an ill bird that fouls its ain nest, Betty, and when a' the
auld wives are shakin' their mutches at the end o' peat stacks and
sayin', 'This'll be another o' _his_; ye might have asked yourself
_how_? The poor wee mitherless mite; her feet will be on the neck o'
her enemies, and, mistress, maybe I can tell ye why. I hinna leed tae
ye yet, and ye can whip me from your doors if ye will, but hard, hard
will it fa' on them that raise the scourge."

Such a look passed between these two, so full of meaning, that my aunt
told Betty to leave her.

"And keep better manners among your wenches," said she, "for I will not
have Dan tormented with the baggage; and tell him I hope my son will
grow tall and strong like him, for I will be mindful of his kindness."

"Indeed, indeed, he would be very good, my dearie," cried Betty,
anxious to make amends. "When ye were taken ill he lay in the kitchen
the lang night through, and his horse saddled and bridled ready in his
stall; ay, and he would not go to bed for the Laird himsel'. Indeed,
many a wild night he galloped through, and him oot in the morning when
the doctor had left."

Belle had slipped out as the old woman was speaking, and now came back
with her tartan bundle; and when Betty had left the room the gipsy took
from the shawl a wean that cried so lustily that it wakened the heir to
all Nourn.

As the women whispered and crooned over the bairns, their cries
resounded through the house, and made it n