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Lie an' hearken he'rty till 't the nicht, whan ye're i' yer bed; hearken an' hearken till the soon' rins awa' wi' ye like, an' ye forget a' aboot yersel', an' think yersel' awa' wi' the burn, rinnin', rinnin', throu' this an' throu' that, throu' stanes an' birks an' bracken, throu' heather, an' plooed lan' an' corn, an' wuds an' gairdens, aye singin', an' aye cheengin' yer tune accordin', till it wins to the muckle roarin' sea, an' 's a' tint.
"I'm just a plain Scotchman, an' no such a fule at climbin' either! Why, man, I've been up Goatfell in Arran, an' Ben Lomond an' Ben Nevis there's a mountain for ye, if ye like! But a brae like this, wi' a' the stanes lyin' helter-skelter, an' crags that ye can barely hold on to and a mad chap guidin' ye on at the speed o' a leapin' goat I tell ye, I havena been used to't."
"Yer what?" queried Meg with asperity; "I thocht that ye had aneuch o' the session already for caa'in' honest fowk names; gin ye begin wi' me, ye'll get on the stool o' repentance o' yer ain accord, afore I hae dune wi' ye!" "But, Meg, I hae telled ye afore that I am sair in need o' a wife. An' I'm warned oot, Meg, so that I'll look nae langer on the white stanes o' the kirkyaird."
"A' richt," said Robert, as he looked at the narrow platform, with its weak, inadequate railing, which could hardly prevent anyone from falling down on to the wagon track, some fifteen or twenty feet below on one side, or on to the moving "scree" on the other. "Weel, mind an' no' let any stanes gang past, for there are aye complaints comin' in aboot dirty coals.
There maybe vouts aneath vouts, for them 'at ye can win intill 's half fu' o' yird an' stanes.
He kens every water i' the warld, every bit sheuch and burnie frae Gallowa' to Berwick. And then he kens the way o' spates the best I ever seen, and I've heard tell o' him fordin' waters when nae ither thing could leeve i' them. He can weyse and wark his road sae cunnin'ly on the stanes that the roughest flood, if it's no juist fair ower his heid, canna upset him.
Ane can see amang the rougher stanes the rose-wrought mullions of an arched window, an' the trough that ance held the holy water. About twa hunder years ago a wee mair maybe, or a wee less, for ane canna be very sure o' the date o' thae old stories the building was entire; an' a spot near it, whar the wood now grows thickest, was laid out in a corn-field.
And luik upo' this bit hoosie, 'at I ca' my ain, and they a' helpit me to bigg, but as a lean-to til the hoose at hame, for I'm no awa frae it or them jist as that hoose and this hoose and a' the hooses are a' jist but bairnies' hooses, biggit by themsels aboot the big flure o' thy kitchie and i' the neuks o' the same wi' yer ain truffs and stanes and divots, sir.
"'God help you, woman! I said to mysel', 'it canna be bonnets it's stanes and divits mair likely that they're flinging at him. Syne I creeped out o' the manse. Dominie, you mind I passed you in the kitchen, and didna say a word?" Yes, I saw the precentor pass through the kitchen, with such a face on him as no man ever saw him wear again.
There's ower mony nesty imps o' boys, rinnin' an' cloddin' stanes at puir Jock, forby caa'in' him names. Syne he loses his temper wi' them an' then he micht do them an injury an' get himsel' intil the gaol. Na, na, when Jock sees the blue smoor o' Auld Reeky gaun up into the lift he'll turn an' gae hame." "Well, Jock," said Ralph, "it behooves me to see Mistress Winsome before I go.
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