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The sober matrons, as they sat at the door on the "stane settle," little inclined to work, considered themselves entitled to a feast of gossip; and even the guidman did not feel himself entitled to curb the glib tongue of his dame, or close up her ears with prudential maxims against the bad effects of darling, heart-stirring, soul-inspiring scandal.
To this proposal Duncan offered no objection, only he wished to stipulate for a bed in the house, as, he said, he had never been accustomed to lie in barns; and, as a guarantee that he would neither injure their property, nor run off without giving them notice, he offered to place five guineas in the hands of the guidman remarking, that it was all the ready money he had about him.
Mair by token, wadna the guidman o' that same hae me du what I haena dune this twae year, or maybe twenty tak a dram? An' didna I tak it? An' was I no in need o' 't? An' didna I come hame a' the better for 't?" "An' get a sicht o' the kelpy intil the bargain eh, Grizzie?" suggested Cosmo.
The eldest son of the guidman of Mains showed an early fondness for his school exercises, and acquired, under the tuition of Roaring Jock, the dominie of the parish, a tolerable proficiency in the rudiments of literature.
My best respecks to the guidwife and a' our common friens, especiall Mr. and Mrs. Cruikshank, and the honest guidman o' Jock's Lodge. I'll be in Dumfries the morn gif the beast be to the fore, and the branks bide hale. Gude be wi' you, Willie! Amen! LI.-To MR. WILLIAM NICOL. MAUCHLINE, June l8, 1787.
"He seems to me to be a decent, canny lad; and, at ony rate, we canna be far wrang wi' ae six months o' him, ony way, seein that he's payin the siller afore haun. That's the grand point, Rab." "Feth, it's that, guidwife nae doot o't," replied her husband. "Juist the pint o' pints. But whar'll ye put the lad?" "Ou, tak ye nae fash about that, guidman. I'll manage that.
"Heigho!" responded her mother, as in pleasant raillery "what is the lassie heighoing at? Certes, if ye get a guidman before ye be six and twenty, ye may think yoursel' a very fortunate woman." "Yes," added the maiden; "but I see sma' prospect o' that. I doubt ye will see the Ettrick running through the 'dowie dells o' Yarrow, before ye hear tell o' an offer being made to me."
"I'll rather cut my finger for an excuse to bide at hame, though, afore I gang to the field when he's there," was Catherine's half-pettish reply. "Confound ye if ye do ony sic thing!" cried her mother: "though Sandy pays the house-rent, noo, recollect the guidman can ill spare ony o' his shearers when the weather is fair."
"But, young man," she said, shaking her finger at him as if she expected a contradiction, "mind you, there's no a lass i' twunty parishes like this lassie o' mine. An' dinna think that me an' my guidman dinna ken brawly what's bringin' ye to Craig Ronald. Noo, it's richt an' better nor richt for ye're yer faither's son, an' we baith wuss ye weel.
At least, he looked about him for some means of escape, and fumbled with the catch of his black hand-bag. "Deil's in the man," cried Mary Lyon, snatching the bag from him, "but it's a blessing I'm no so easy to tak' in as the guidman there. Let that bag alane, will ye, na! Wha kens what may be in it? There what did I tell you?"
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