David Macbeth Moir

“ It is not in corrupted, sinful hearts that the fire of true love can ever burn clear. Alas, and ohon orie! they lose the sweetest, completest, dearest, truest, pleasure that this world has in store for its children. They know not the bless to meet, that makes the embrace of separation bitter. They never dreamed the dreams that make awakening to the morning light unpleasant. ”

“ His consternation, on finding it flee half open, may be easier imagined than described, for, expecting the Frenchman to bounce out like a roaring lion, they hurried like mad into the house, couping the creels ower ane anither, Tammie spraining his thumb against the back door, and Benjie's foot going into Tammie's coat pocket, which it carried away with it, like a cloth sandal. ”

“ Tammie and Benjie came behint me, while, pushing the door wide open with the muzzle, as I held my finger at the tricker: I cried, "Stand or be shot" whey young Cursecowl's big ugly mastiff-doug, wi' the bare mutton-bane in its teeth, bolted through between my legs like a fury, and wi' such a force as to wheel me ower on the braid id' my back while I gied a dunt on the causeway that made the gun go off, and riddled Nanse's best washing tub in a manner that laid it on the superannuated list as to the matter of holding in water. ”

“ And who think ye should this lassie be, but Nanse Cromie, afterwards, in the course of a kind providence, the honoured wife of my bosom, and the mother of bonny Benjie.
In going up and down the stairs,—it being a common entry, ye observe—me maybe going down with my every day hat on to my dinner, and she coming up, carrying a stoup of wa'er, or half a-pound of powdered butter on a plate, with a piece of paper thrown over it,— we frequently met half-way, and, had to stand still to let one another pass. ”

“ At lang and last a thocht struck me, which was to gie the deluded simple cratur a chance of escape; reckoning that if he fand his way hame, he wad see the shame and folly of feighting against us ony mair; and marrying Maysie Rabble, live a contented and peacefu' life under his ain feg and bey tree. So, wishing him a sound sleep, I cried through the door,— "Mounseer, gooda nighta;" decoying away Benjie and Tammy Bodkin into the house, and dispatching them to their beds like lamp-lighters, bidding them never fash their thumbs, but sleep like taps, as I would keep a sharp look-out till morning. ”

“ Every father and head of a family maun hae felt for a man in his situation, thus to he rubbit of his dear bairn, and an only daughter too, as he tell'us ower and ower again, as the saut saut tears ran gushing down his withered face, and he aye blew his nose on his clean callendered pocket napkin. But, ye ken, the thing was absurd to suppose, that we should ken ony thing about the matter, having never seen either him or his daughter between the een afore, and no kenning them by head mark ”

“ Being a volunteer, and so ane of his majesty's confidential servants, I swithered tremendously between my duty as a man and a soldier; but, dae what you like, nature will aye be uppermost. The scale weighed down to the side of peety. I hearkened to the scripture that promises a blessing to the merciful in heart and determined, come o't what would, to let the Frenchy tak his chance of falling into ither hands. ”

“ As true as death, before all the crowd of folk, he pat his arm round her waist, and caad her his sweetheart, and love, and dearie, and darling, and every thing that is sweet. If they had been courting in a closs thegether, on a Friday night, they couldna hae said mair to ane anither, or gaen greater lengths. ”

“ At the dawn o' daw, by cock-craw, Benjie and Tammy Bodkin, keen o' the ploy, were up and astir as anxious as if their life depended on it, to see that all was safe and snug, and that the prisoner hadna shot the lock. They agreed to march sentry over him, half an hour the piece, time about, the ane stretching himsell out on a stool beside the kitchen fire, by way of a bench in the guard-house, while the other gaed to and fro like the ticker of a clock.
The back window being up a jink, I heard the twa confabbing. "We'll draw cuts," said Benjie, "which is to walk sentry first ”

“ I'm killed—I'm speechless!" and ither lamentations to that effect; so that a rush to the door took place, in which everything was overturned—the door keeper being wheeled away like wildfire—the furms strampit to pieces—the lights knockit out—and the twa blind fiddlers dung bead foremost ower the stage, the bass fiddle cracking like thunder at every bruise. Siccan tearing, and swearing, and tumbling, and squeeling, was never witnessed in the memory of man, sin the building of Babel; legs being likely to be broken, sides staved in, een knocked out, and lives lost ”

“ Just at the time that the twa blind fiddlers were playing the Downfall of Paris, a hand-bell rang and up goes the green curtain, being hauled to tbe ceiling, as I observed wi' the tail o' my ee, by a birkie at the side that had haud o' a rope. So, on the music stopping and all becoming as still as that you might have heard a pin fall, in comes a decent old gentleman, at his leasure, well powered, wi' an auld-fashioned coat and, waistcoat wi' flap pockets, brown breeches, with buckles at the knees, and silk stockings, with red gushets on a blue ground. I never saw a man in sic distress ”

“ So Maister Glen, being as fu' of nonsense, and as fain to have his curiosity gratified, we took upon us the stout resolution to gang out thegither, he offering to treat me, and I determined to run the risk of Maister Wiggie, our minister's rebuke, for the transgression, hoping it would make na lasting impression on his mind, being for the first and only time. Folks shouldna at a' times be ower scrupulous. ”

“ Are we no descended, faither and son frae Robert Bruce and Sir William Wallace, having the bright bluid of freemen in our veins, and the Pentland hills. as weel as our ain dear hames and firesides, to fight for? The fief that wadna gie cut-and-thrust for his country, as lang as he had a breath to draw, or a leg to stand on, should be tied neck and heels, without benefit o' clergy, and thrown ower Leith pier, to swim for his life like a mangy dog! ”

“ The faither lookit to be a rich auld bool, haith from his manner of speaking and the rewards he seemed to offer for the apprehension of his daughter; but, to be sure, when so many of us were present that had an equall right to the spulzie, it wad na be a great deal a thousand pounds when divided, still it was worth the looking after; so we just bidit a wee. ”