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sage to and from the sea-beach, in pursuit of their daily occupation. They then crossed the high barren downs already described, by an indistinct track, leading among the sand heaps, and they ultimately began to descend towards the more inland country, through a series of wild furzy pastures, to which some irregular patches of cultivation succeeded.

After nearly an hour's walk, their eyes were gladdened by the sight of an illuminated window at some distance, which, though consisting of four small panes of glass only, emitted blaze of light enough to have served for a beacon.

Amherst was surprised to find their walk so much longer than Mr Macgillivray had led him to expect it to be. It was too great for a mere saunter of pleasure. He could not help thinking there was something very mysterious in the whole behaviour of their new acquaintance; for although he continued to converse with fluency, and with all the urbanity he displayed when they first met him, Amherst frequently observed his keen eyes turned on him in the imperfect light of the moon, as if to scan his face and person. Nothing, however, like an apprehension of

treachery had ever crossed his mind, and, indeed, if any such had arisen there, it must have been soon dispelled by the cheering though confused sounds of merriment proceeding from the black mass before them, which, but for the flickering blaze from its little window, would never have been taken by Amherst for a human dwelling.

As they approached the hut, they began to distinguish, what might much more properly have been called the noise than the air of a rude song, supported by an occasional chorus of many voices, and as they drew nearer, their ears caught the words of the conclusion,

Then whilst we have claret,

Come, boys, do not spare it,

For wit is its produce, then drink to have fire!
See, mirth sits on ilka brow,

Who cares for care now?

For drown'd in deep goblets the fiend must expire.
Then, hey! come! jolly boys, join in the carrol,
And ilka ane fill his point stoup to the nail,
Let's fill, drink and fill, till we empty the barrel,

For though it held oceans our thirst would prevail!

A Bacchanalian cheer arose as this chorus terminated, and it had just died away as Mr Mac

gillivray ushered his new acquaintances into the public-house. But before I permit him to introduce them to the party within, I must first give the reader some idea of the interior of the place.

The house was chiefly composed of two large chambers, known in Scotland by the appellation of the but and the ben. The first of these, entering from the doorway, was used as the kitchen and hall. It had a large fire-place, with a chimney so much projected into the middle of the apartment, that a company of a dozen might have easily sat under it; and a couple of forms, placed one on each side, showed that it was frequently so occupied. The black smoky rafters were only here and there covered with bits of old boat sails, stretched across, and bent downwards between the beams, as if laden with numerous articles of lumber thrown up there to be out of the way. In other places the eye was permitted to penetrate upwards through a network of cobwebs and dust, till arrested by the interior of the thatched roof. Two or three favourite hens, at roost in the sooty regions above, seemed to sleep perfectly unconscious of the

noise below. The walls of the apartment were lined with divers cupboards, and plate-racks of different altitudes, shapes, and patterns, containing a motley assemblage of pewter and stoneware, mingled with kitchen utensils, many of them broken, and all of them dirty. Amongst other things there were a number of truncated bottles, stalkless glasses, and many pieces of cracked tea-ware of very fine foreign china, and these were intermixed with horn spoons, iron skewers, and dirty pot-lids. Long strings of fish hung drying over the fire-place, and a number of mutton hams dangled from hooks fixed in the beams, some of them so low as to make it difficult for a tall person to steer his head through them. Several large antique-looking chests, having curious dark recesses between them, where the light could hardly penetrate, a dresser, a frail table, and half a dozen wooden chairs, in the same state, formed the major part of the furniture of this chamber.

They had no sooner entered, than their ears were saluted with the sounds of discord.

"Set ye up, ye dirty baggage, to be gawin glaikin out with the fallows at this time o' night,

an' leavin' me to be slavin' here my lane, an' sae muckle company in the house!"

Such was the exclamation of mine hostess, Mrs M'Claver, a tall, stout, good-looking, but extremely dirty woman, in a white mutch, with long black locks curling over her face and shoulders, a string of large amber beads round her neck, and clothed in a printed short-gown, covering a petticoat of red flannel, and having a pair of large well filled pockets, and a pin-cushion and pair of shears hanging by a long string at her side. In one hand she brandished an old gridiron, and in the other a dried haddock, as she stood threatening a very handsome spiritedlooking wench, with trigly snooded up hair, to whom her reproof had been addressed, and who seemed just in the act of returning the first broadside of the wordy war, when its further progress was arrested by the appearance of the strangers and Macgillivray.

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"Mrs M'Claver," said the latter, " seem to be moved; pray what has bonny Peggy Galravage been doing to displease you ?”

"Ou no that muckle after a'," said Mrs M'Claver, smoothing her brow with a smile, as she

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