her father say:

"But ye maun haud a quaiet tongue i' yer heid, guidwife; for weel as ye
like the laddie, ye may blast his character gin ye say a word aboot
it."

"I s' warran' it's a' ower Glamerton afore it comes to your lugs,
Anerew," returned her mother. "They're no that gleg efter sic news. But
I wad like sair to ken wha sent hame the word o' 't."

"I'm thinking it's been young Bruce."

"The Lord be praised for a lee!" exclaimed Mrs Constable. "Haena I
tell't ye afore noo, sae that it's no upmak to pick the lock o' the
occasion, Anerew, that Rob Bruce has a spite at that faimily for takin'
sic a heap o' notice o' Annie Annerson. And I wadna wonner gin he had
set's hert upo' merryin' her upo' 's ain Rob, and sae keepin' her bit
siller i' the faimily. Gin that be sae, he micht weel gie Alec Forbes a
back-handit cloot (blow)."

"'Deed! maybe, gudewife. He's a burnin' and a shinin' licht amo' you
missioners, though; and ye maunna say ill o' 'm, for fear he has ye up
afore the kirk."

"Ay, deed is he! He's a burnin' shame, and a stinkin' lamp; for the
grace o' God wasna hauden to the nib o' 'm lang eneuch to set him in a
low (flame), but only lang eneuch to gar the ile o' 'm reek fit to
scomfish (suffocate) a haill Sodom."

"Hoot, lass! Ye're ower sair even upo' him. But it's verra true that
gin the story cam' frae that en' o' the toon, there's room for
rizzonable doobts. Sae we'll awa' to our beds, and houp things mayna be
sae far gane as the soun' o' them. Only I drede there's aye some water
whaur the stirkie droons."

It was long before little Isie got to sleep, what with attempting to
realize the actual condition of Alec Forbes, and trying to excogitate
the best means for his deliverance. Why should not all Glamerton set
out in a body with flails and pitchforks? And if she must not meddle
for that, seeing her father had said the matter must not be mentioned,
yet his prohibition could not include Alec's mother, whom it would be
wicked to keep in ignorance. For what would Isie think if she was taken
prisoner by a cruel woman and they would not tell her mother? So she
fell asleep, to wake in the morning with the sense of a mission upon
her important little mind.

What rendered it probable that the rumour came from "that end of the
town" was, that Bruce the younger was this year a bejan at Alec's
college, and besides was the only other scion of Glamerton there
grafted, so that any news about Alec other than