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This conversation brought them to Monkbarns, where the Antiquary had to undergo a chiding from his sister, who, though no philosopher, was waiting to deliver a lecture to him in the portico. "Guide us, Monkbarns! are things no dear eneugh already, but ye maun be raising the very fish on us, by giving that randy, Luckie Mucklebackit, just what she likes to ask?"
A noise of footsteps followed this singular annunciation, and young Steenie Mucklebackit, closely followed by Edie Ochiltree, bounced into the hut. They were panting and out of breath.
The boat had indeed been overset; but Stephen, or, as he was called, Steenie Mucklebackit, was the only man who had been drowned.
"And the poor young fellow, Steenie Mucklebackit, is to be buried this morning," said our old friend the Antiquary, as he exchanged his quilted night-gown for an old-fashioned black coat in lieu of the snuff-coloured vestment which he ordinarily wore, "and, I presume, it is expected that I should attend the funeral?"
"I see them mysell weel eneugh," said Mucklebackit; "they are sitting down yonder like hoodie-craws in a mist; but d'yo think ye'll help them wi' skirling that gate like an auld skart before a flaw o' weather? Steenie, lad, bring up the mast Od, I'se hae them up as we used to bouse up the kegs o' gin and brandy lang syne Get up the pickaxe, make a step for the mast make the chair fast with the rattlin haul taught and belay!"
And here is fish and sauce, and crappit-heads I acknowledge our womankind excel in that dish it procures them the pleasure of scolding, for half an hour at least, twice a-week, with auld Maggy Mucklebackit, our fish-wife. The chicken-pie, Mr.
"Really, sir, I dinna feel myself called on to remember," replied the cautious bedesman. "Or whether, in the course of that day or night," continued the magistrate, "you saw Steven, or Steenie, Mucklebackit? you knew him, I suppose?" "O, brawlie did I ken Steenie, puir fallow," replied the prisoner; "but I canna condeshend on ony particular time I have seen him lately."
"Mind the peak there," cried Mucklebackit, an old fisherman and smuggler "mind the peak Steenie, Steenie Wilks, bring up the tackle I'se warrant we'll sune heave them on board, Monkbarns, wad ye but stand out o' the gate." "I see them," said Oldbuck "I see them low down on that flat stone Hilli-hilloa, hilli-ho-a!"
And at any rate, these wild bits of verse are redolent of the freshness of the sea-breeze, the damps of the clinging fog, the strange odors of the caboose-cookery, of the curing of cod, and of many another "ancient and fish-like smell." Who will tell us of these songs, not indeed of the deep sea, but of soundings? What were the stanzas which Luckie Mucklebackit sang along the Portanferry Sands?
This conversation brought them to Monkbarns, where the Antiquary had to undergo a chiding from his sister, who, though no philosopher, was waiting to deliver a lecture to him in the portico. "Guide us, Monkbarns! are things no dear eneugh already, but ye maun be raising the very fish on us, by giving that randy, Luckie Mucklebackit, just what she likes to ask?"
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