of Craig Ronald. Winsome usually read a book, sitting by the window which looked up the long green croft to the fir-woods and down to the quiet levels of Loch Grannoch, on which the evenin

rack," and it was Winsome's delight on these occasions to listen to the flashing claymore of Meg Kissock's rustic wit. Before she settled down, Meg had taken in the three tall candles "ben

the cows were feeding, blowing softly through their nostrils among t

ocks. He wore a broad blue Kilmarnock bonnet, checked red and white in a "dam-brod" [draught-board] pattern round the edge, and a blue-buttoned coat with broad pearl buttons. It may be well to explain that there is a latent meaning, apparent only to Galloway fo

addressed by Meg came

he said, with his b

ers?" said Jess, archly, for all

e like a tro

rawly, but it disna do to come

awa' Meg, an' then come coo

inted allusion both to his profession and a

be sair ill-aff!" he repl

interrupted this interchange of amenities, which was indeed as friendly and as much looked for between lads and lasses

r can let the like o' you sorn on him, week in, week oot, like a mawk on a sheep's hurdie? Gae wa' oot o' that, lyin' sumphin' [

a man well on in years at this time, certainly not less than forty-five. But on his face there was no wrinkle set, not a fleck of gray upon his bonnetless fox-red shock of hair, weather-rusted and usually stuck full of feathers and short pieces of hay. Jock Gordon was permitted to wander as a privileged

wi' her hair like gowd, an' a fit that she micht set on Jock Gordon's neck, an' it wad please him weel. An' said she, 'Do the wark Meg Kissock bids ye,' so Jock Gordon, Lord

d away with his water-pa

under the westward window, within which was Winsome Charteri

Ebie Farrish, the younger ploughman who had recently come to Craig Ronald from one of the farms at the "laigh" end of the parish. Ebie had also, it was said, with better authority,

id, "Be so kind as to take a seat." The cuif, who had been uneasily balancing himself first on one foot and then on the other

t, Meg, since ye

it upside down, and seated himself as near to Meg as he dared. Then he tried to think what it was he had intended to say to her, but the words

hecked hi

she said; "ye smell o' th

s wife's guid- brither's auntie, that leeved grainin' an' deein' a' her life wi' the rheumatics an' wame disease, a

oice, "gin ye dinna let alane deevin' [deafening] us wi'

ole made by the excavation of last winter's stock

sat on the

, BLACK

ys and drin

t a' whan ye

SAE BLACK A

, BLACK

ilt an' La

d an' reare

e drap whan ye

SAE BLACK A

BLACK AN

song of the natural. "That's a step ayont the kirkyaird, Meg," he said. "Gin ye hae sic objections to hear aboot honest

at dark place where even in the daytime the black Galloway rats cheeped and scurr

had climbed to the top of the peat-stack in some elvish freak, a

REEKY! IN MY HOLE SAE

al!" cried Meg, shaking her fist at the uncouth shape twi

. All were looking towards him, except Ebie Farrish, the new ploughman, who

ed from his perch on the

perity in her voice. "D'ye think that ye'll win aff ony the easier in the hinnerend

ersel' whaur Jock Gordon'll no be there to serve ye; but the Ill Auld Boy'll keep ye in routh o' peats, never ye fret, Meg Kissock, wi' that reed-heed [red head] o' you

There had been a great land-slip. The whole side of the peat-stack had tumbled bodily into the great "black peat-hole" from which the winter's peats had come, and which was a favourite lair of Joc

what had become of Jock, whose

own-fallen peat there came

deil, dinna yirk awa'

ever yet did ye ony h

time, braw deil, an'

aboo

Meg Kissock, "the cra

dy him

was, indeed, no difficult task. As he did so, th

ke gleds [beaks like kites] get haud o' me! I wad rayther hae yersel', Maister o' Sawtan, for ye are a big mensef

which served as a collar for Jock's coat. When he was pulled from under

didna think ye war the deil himsel'-ye see wh

of Ebie, in which Meg thought that she heard

he deil?" asked Meg from the window, very

t's as weel to be in wi' him as oot wi' him ony day. Wha' kens what's afore them,

said, from his cot-house up on the hill, where his bare-legged bairns played on the heather

hepherds,' he ca'd them? Noo I'm no on mysel' wi' sae muckle speakin' aboot the deil. But the minister

aun aboot doin' sae muckle ill then,

s deed, and that we'll hae to pit up wi' Ebie Farrish.

tively at his cutty, "that the pooer is ves

Meg; "it's juist haein' mony maisters, ilka

Jock Gordon, significantly. "They're near kin till him-forby a heep o' bairns that he has i' the laich-side

er all, the new plan might have its conveniences, "gin th

. He was not led away by any human cr

"I canna' pairt wi' ma deil. Na, na, that'

of Galloway wool over his shoulders, and fell into the herd's long swinging heather step, mounti

ably from the axe-chipped hag-clog, which he had rolled up to sit upon. Ebie had been wondering

vious of the flight of time, saw the stars come out, he knew that if he were to make any progress, he mus

that has telled me that, cuif?" s

a short laugh, as though he knew something about that. Again there was a silence, and as the night wind

t to tell us, cuif?" said Meg

interest, his profession and his affection being alike debarred, "there's

erent manner. A young man who had burned his fingers

d him arguin' wi' the minister aboot the weemen-folk

arrish; "a snod bit lass is the bonn

asked Jess, without

e man has dune afore him," said Meg, sententiousl

ens. He can speak byordinar' graund. They say he'll beat the daddy o' him for preachin' when he's leecense

queer aboot h

that the subject was of such interest that her mistress had again opened her window.

to light his pipe

me ye were thinkin' aboot gaun ower the hill. But y

-writin', whiles on sheets o

boot that," says Meg;

had gotten aboot his bedroom somewhere. She said that

her, for a man that comes to see me!" said Me

lengths like the metr

e I didna' read it,"

. I was e'en gaun to

hite in Saunders's han

Meg's palm, and th

ly. Ebie Farrish was not. Jock Forrest had folded his tent and stolen

bonnet had fallen to the ground, and there was a

's Prayer, I sair misdoot! Guid forgie me! I find mysel' whiles wonderin' gin I'll see ye the day afore I can gang ower in my mind the graves that's to howk, o

k?" said Meg, practically, to

who though a cuif was a business man, "an' a cottage o

s, that Robert Paterson cuttit till ye a year past in Aprile. Na, na, ye'll no get me to leeve a' my life lookin' oot on that ilk' time I wash my dishes. It wad mak' yin be wan

looking at the tinder burning till it went out, without having remembered to put it to the pipe which he held in his other hand. After the last sparks ran every way and flickered, he threw the

the blind as some one went to and fro. Then there was a sharp noise as of one clicking in the "steeple" or brace of the front door (which opened in two halves

without noise. She looked out and said, in a compromis

I wa

er hand. She seemed as if she would pause at the door, but Winsome motioned her imperiously within. So Meg c

d Winsome,

d had suddenly and unexpectedly found the answer. Slowly she lifted up her dark-green druggit skirt, and out of a pocket of enormous siz

Her eye said "Good-night" to Meg

the door, and then, just as she w

as the ither yin ye fand. Ye

with the paper in her hand. Just as she had begun to smooth out the crinkles produced by the hands of Manse Bell who could not read it, Saunders who would not,

mistress o' the man

odding her head aft