o' a wheel-car--but never fear, we'll slip
you hame upon a feather-bed.--Nae denial, Willie--here, draw on your
coat: now, that's something purpose-like--cram thae flim-flams into a
poke, my bonny Jean, and fetch me a handkerchief to tie about his
head: Come, Willie, take my arm--come awa, come awa."

I was passive in his hands, for I felt as weak as an infant. They
wrapped me up in greatcoats and blankets, and supported me to the
courtyard. I had hardly strength to speak to Aleck, whom I now saw for
the first time since the night of his disaster; the poor fellow's face
still bore the livid marks of his punishment, but he was active and
assiduous as ever. A slide car or slipe--a vehicle something like a
Lapland sledge--was covered with bedding in the middle of the square:
a cart was just being hurried off, full of loose furniture, with Peggy
and Jenny in front. I was placed upon my hurdle, apparently as little
for this world as if Tyburn had been its destination: Knowehead and
Aleck mounted their horses, took the reins of that which drew me at
either side, and hauled me off at a smart trot along the smooth turf
of the grass-grown causeway. The motion was sliding and agreeable,
except on one occasion, when we had to take a few perches of the
highway in crossing the river; but when we struck off into the green
horse-track again, and began to rise and sink upon the ridges of the
broad lea, I could have compared my humble litter to the knight's
horses, which felt like proud seas under them. From the sample I had
had of that part of the country on the night of the flood, I had
anticipated a "confused march forlorn, through bogs, caves, fens,
lakes, dens, and shades of death," but was agreeably surprised to see
the Longslap Moss a simple stripe along the water's edge, lying dark
in the deepening twilight, a full furlong from our path, which,
instead of weltering through the soaked and spungy flats that I had
expected, wound dry and mossy up the gentle slope of a smooth green
hill; so that, although the night closed in upon us ere half our
journey was completed, we arrived at Knowehead without farther
accident than one capsize (the beauty of slipping consists in the
impossibility of breaks down), and so far from being the worse of my
"sail," I felt actually stronger than on leaving the Grange;
nevertheless I was put to bed, where I continued for a week.

Next day brought intelligence of the wrecking of Moyabel in the
search