m. Nor was the fear without foundation; for the stream was still
rising, and a foot more would overtop the ground between it and the
Glamour.

But while the excited crowd of his townsmen stood in the middle of a
stubble-field, watching the progress of the enemy at their feet, Robert
Bruce was busy in his cellar preparing for its reception. He could not
move his cask of sugar without help, and there was none of that to be
had. Therefore he was now, in his shirt-sleeves, carrying the sugar up
the cellar-stairs in the coal-scuttle, while Mrs Bruce, in a condition
very unfit for such efforts, went toiling behind him with the
_meal-bossie_ filled far beyond the brim. As soon as he had finished
his task, he hurried off to join the watchers of the water.

James Johnstone's workshop was not far from the Glamour. When he went
into it that morning, he found the treadles under water, and thought he
had better give himself _the play_.

"I'll jist tak a daun'er (stroll) doon to the brig to see the spate
gang by," he said to himself, and, putting on his grandfather's hat,
went out into the rain.

As he came near the bridge, he saw cripple Truffey leaning over the
parapet with horror-stricken looks. The next moment he bounded to his
one foot and his crutch, and _spanged_ over the bridge as if he had
been gifted with six legs.

When James reached the parapet, he could see nothing to account for the
terror and eagerness in Truffey's pale face, nor for his precipitate
flight. But being short-sighted and inquisitive, he set off after
Truffey as fast as the dignity proper to an elderly weaver and a deacon
of the missionars would permit.

As Alec came near the mill he saw two men standing together on the
verge of the brown torrent which separated them from it. They were the
miller--the same whose millstone Curly had broken by shutting down the
sluice--and Thomas Crann, the latest architect employed about the
building. Thomas had been up all night, wandering hither and thither
along the shore of the Wan Water, sorely troubled about Glamerton and
its careless people. Towards morning he had found himself in the town
again, and, crossing the Glamour, had wandered up the side of the
water, and so come upon the sleepless miller contemplating his mill in
the embrace of the torrent.

"Ye maun alloo it's _hard_, Thamas," said the miller.

"_Hard_?" retorted Thomas with indignation. "Hoo daur ye say sic a
thing! Here hae ye been stickin' ye