 Volume 1, Chapter 7, of the Antiquary. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Antiquary, by Sir Walter Scott. Chapter 7. Pleased a wild of you, the watery waste, the prospect wild and new. The now receding waters gave them space. On either side, the growing shores to trace and then returning. They contract the scene till small and smaller grows the walk between. Crab. The information of Davy Dibble, which had spread such general alarm at Mock Barnes, proved to be strictly correct. Sir Arthur and his daughter had set out, according to their first proposal, to return to Nockwineck by the Turnpike Road. But when they reached the head of the loaning, as it was called, or Great Lane, which on one side made a sort of avenue to the house of Mock Barnes, they discerned a little way before them, Lovell, who seemed to linger on the way as if to give him an opportunity to join them. Miss Wardour immediately proposed her father that they should take another direction, and, as the weather was fine, walk home by the sands, which, stretching below a picturesque ridge of rocks, afforded at almost all times a pleasanter passage between Nockwineck and Mock Barnes than the High Road. Sir Arthur acquiesced willingly. It would be unpleasant, he said, to be joined by that young fellow whom Mr. Oldbuck had taken the freedom to introduce them to. And his old-fashioned politeness had none of the ease of the present day, which permits you, if you have a mind, to cut the person you have associated with for a week, the instant you feel or suppose yourself in a situation which makes it disagreeable to own him. Sir Arthur only stipulated that a little ragged boy, for the warden of one penny sterling, should run to meet his coachman and turn his equipage back to Nockwineck. When this was arranged and the emissary dispatched, the knight and his daughter left the High Road and followed a wandering path among sandy hillocks, partly grown over with furs and the long grass called bent, soon attained the side of the ocean. The tide was by no means so far out, as they had computed, but this gave them no alarm. There were seldom ten days in the year when it approached so near the cliffs as not to leave a dry passage. But nevertheless, at periods of spring tide, or even when the ordinary flood was accelerated by high winds, this road was altogether covered by the sea, and tradition had recorded several fatal accidents which had happened on such occasions. Still, such dangers were considered as remote and improbable, and rather served with other legends to amuse the hamlet fireside than to prevent anyone from going between Nockwineck and Mach Barnes by the sands. As Sir Arthur and Miss Warder paced along, enjoying the pleasant footing afforded by the cool, moist hard sound, Miss Warder could not help observing that the last tide had risen considerably above the usual watermark. Sir Arthur made the same observation, but without its occurring to either of them, to be alarmed at the circumstance. The sun was now resting his huge disc upon the edge of the level ocean, and gilded the accumulation of towering clouds, through which he had traveled the live long day, and which now assembled on all sides, like misfortunes and disasters, around a sinking empire, and falling monarch. Still, however, his dying splendor gave a somber magnificence to the mass of congregation of vapors, forming out of their unsubstantial gloom the show of pyramids and towers, some touched with gold, some with purple, some with the hue of deep and dark red. The distant sea, stretched beneath this varied and gorgeous canopy, lay almost portentously still, reflecting back the dazzling and level beams of the descending luminary, and the splendid coloring of the clouds amidst which he was setting. Nearer to the beach, the tide rippled onward in waves of sparkling silver, that imperceptibly, yet rapidly, gained upon the sand. With the mind employed in admiration of the romantic scene, or perhaps on some more agitating topic, Miss Wardore, advanced in silence by her father's side, whose recently offended dignity, did not stoop to open any conversation. Following the windings of the beach, they passed one projecting point of headland or rock after another, and now found themselves under a huge and continued extent of the precipices by which that ironbound coast is in most places defended. Long projecting reefs of rock, extending under water, and only evincing their existence, by here and there, a peak, entirely bare, or by the breakers which foamed over those that were partially covered, rendered Nockwinnick Bay, dreaded by pilots and shipmasters. The crag which rose between the beach and the mainland, to the height of two or three hundred feet, afforded in their crevices shelter for unnumbered seafowl, in situations seemingly secured by their dizzy height from the rapacity of man. Many of these wild tribes, with the instinct which sends them to seek the land before a storm arises, were now winging towards their nests, with the shrill and dissonant clang which announces disquietude and fear. The disc of the sun became almost totally obscured ere he had altogether sunk below the horizon, and in early and lurid shade of darkness, blotted the serene twilight of the summer evening. The wind began next to arise, but its wild and moaning sound was heard for some time, and its effects became visible on the bosom of the sea, before the gale was felt on shore. The mass of waters, now dark and threatening, began to lift itself in larger ridges and sink in deeper furrows, forming waves that rose high in foam upon the breakers, or burst upon the beach with a sound resembling distant thunder. Appalled by the sudden change of weather, Miss Water drew close to her father, and held his arm fast. I wish, at length, she said, but almost in a whisper, as if ashamed to express her increasing apprehensions. I wish we had kept the road we intended, or waited at Monk Barnes for the carriage. Sir Arthur looked round, but did not see, or would not acknowledge, any signs of an immediate storm. They would reach knock when a key said, long before the tempest began. But the speed with which he walked, and with which Isabella could hardly keep pace, indicated a feeling that some exertion was necessary to accomplish his conciliatory prediction. They were now near the center of a deep but narrow bay, or recess, formed by two projecting capes of high and inaccessible rock, which shot out into the sea, like the horns of a crescent. And neither durst communicate the apprehension, which each began to entertain, that from the unusually rapid advance of the tide, they might be deprived of the power of proceeding by doubling the promontory, which they before them, or of retreating by the road which brought them thither. As they thus pressed forward, longing doubtless to exchange the easy curving line, which the sinuosities of the bay compelled them to adopt, for a straighter and more expeditious path, Sir Arthur observed a human figure on the beach advancing to meet them. Thank God, he exclaimed, we shall get round, huckled head, that person must have passed it. Thus giving vent to the feeling of hope, though we had suppressed that of apprehension. Thank God, indeed, echoes daughter, half audibly, half internally, as expressing the gratitude which she strongly felt. The figure which advanced to meet them made many signs, which the haze of the atmosphere, now disturbed by wind and by a drizzling rain, prevented them from seeing, or comprehending, distinctly. Some time before they met, Sir Arthur could recognize the old blue-gown beggar, Eddie Oakletree. It is said that even the brute creation lay aside their animosities and antipodes, when pressed by an instant in common danger. The beach, under huckled head, rapidly diminishing in extent by the encroachments of a spring tide and a northwest wind, was in like manner a neutral field, where even a justice of peace and a strolling mendicant might meet upon terms of mutual forbearance. Turn back, turn back, exclaimed the vagrant. Why did you not turn when I weighed to you? We thought, replied Sir Arthur, in great agitation, we thought we could get round, huckled head. Huckled head! The tide will be running on huckled head by this time, like the fall of fires. It was I could do to get round it twenty minutes since. It was coming in three feet of rest. We will maybe get back by Bodleburg Ness Point yet. The Lord help us. It's our only chance. We can't but try. My God! My child! My father! My dear father! exclaimed the parent and daughter. As fear lending them strength and speed, they turned to retrace their steps and endeavored to double the point, the projection of which formed the southern extremity of the bay. I heard you were here for the bit Collins you sent to meet your carriage, said the beggar, as you trudged out the honest up or two behind Miss Wardore, and I couldn't buy to think of the dainty young lady's peril, that as I had been kind to Ilka forlorn heart, that came nearer. So I looked at the lift and the rune of the tide, till I settled it that if I could get down time enough to get your warning, we would do well yet. But I doubt, I doubt, I have been beguiled. For what more to ye, ye ever saw a sicker race as a tide is rising even now? See, yonder's the rotten scary. He I held his nebub on the water in my day, but he's beneath it now. Sir Arthur cast a look in the direction in which the old man pointed. A huge rock, which in general, even in spring tides, displayed a hulk like the keel of a large vessel, was now quite under water, and this place only indicated by the boiling and breaking of the eddying waves, which encountered its submarine resistance. Make haste, make haste, my bonny lady, continued the old man. Make haste, and we may do yet. Take hold of my arm. An old and frail arm it's now, but it's been, and I are serre stressed as this is yet. Take hold of my arm, my winsome lady. Do ye see, young wee-black speck among the whirlwind waveshonder? This morning it was as high as the mast of a brig. It's small enough now. But, when I see his muckle black, about it is the crown of my hat. I wouldn't believe, but we'll get round the body-burgness, for I that's come and gone yet. Isabella in silence accepted from the old man the assistance which Sir Arthur was less able to afford her. The waves had now encroached so much upon the beach that the firm and smooth footing which they had hitherto had on the sand must be exchanged for a rougher path close to the foot of the precipice, and in some places even raised upon its lower ledges. It would have been utterly impossible for Sir Arthur Warder, or his daughter, to have found their way along these shelves without the guidance and encouragement of the beggar, who had been there before in high tides, though never he acknowledged, and so I always thought one night is this. It was indeed a dreadful evening. The howling of the storm mingled with the shrieks of the sea-fowl, and sounded like the dirge of the three devoted beings, who, penned between two of the most magnificent yet most dreadful objects of nature, are waging tide and an insurmountable precipice, toyed along their painful and dangerous path, often lashed by the spray of some giant billow, which threw itself higher on the beach than those that had preceded it. Each minute did their enemy gain ground perceptibly upon them. Still, however, loath to relinquish the last hopes of life, they bent their eyes on the black rock pointed out by ochre tree. It was yet distinctly visible among the breakers, and continued to be so, until they came to a turn in their precarious path, where an intervening projection of rock hit it from their sight. Deprived of the view of the beacon on which they had relied, they now experienced the double agony of terror and suspense. They struggled forward, however, but when they arrived to the point from which they ought to have seen the crag, it was no longer visible. The signal of safety was lost among a thousand white breakers, which, dashing upon the point of the promontory, rose in prodigious sheets of snowy foam, as high as the mast of a first-rate manivore against the dark brow of the precipice. The countenance of the old man fell. Isabella gave a faint tree again, God of mercy upon us. Which her guide solemnly uttered, was piteously echoed by Sir Arthur, My child, my child, to die such a death. My father, my dear father, his daughter exclaimed, clinging to him, and you too, who have lost your own life in endeavoring to save ours. That's not worth the counting, said the old man. I had lived to be weary of life, and here o' yonder, at the back o' I dyke, in a wreath o' sny, or in the wame o' a wave, what signifies how the eyed Gower lunzie dies? Good man, said Sir Arthur, can you think of nothing, of no help? I'll make you rich, I'll give you a farm all. Our riches will be soon equal, said the beggar, looking out upon the strife of the waters. There I sigh already, for I had no land, and you would give your fair bounds and bear any for a square yard of rock that would be dry for twelve hours. While they exchanged these words, they paused upon the highest ledge of rock, to which they could attain, for it seemed that any further attempt to move forward could only serve to anticipate their fate. Here, then, they were to await the sure, though slow progress of the raging element, something in the situation of the martyrs of the early church, who, exposed by heathen tyrants to be slain by wild bees, were compelled for a time to witness the impatience and rage by which the animals were agitated while awaiting the signal for undoing their grates and letting them loose upon the victims. Yet even this fearful pause gave Isabella time to collect the powers of a mind naturally strong and courageous, and which routed itself at this terrible juncture. Must we yield life, she said, without a struggle? Is there no path, however dreadful, by which we could climb the crag, or at least attain some height above the tide, where we could remain till morning or till help comes? They must be aware of our situation and will raise the country to relieve us. Sir Arthur, who heard but scarcely comprehended his daughter's question, turned, nevertheless, instinctively and eagerly to the old man, as if their lives were in his gift. Occultry paused. I was a bald cragsman, he said, irons in my life, and money a kitty wakes and lungies nest. Hi, I harried up among thy very black rocks. But it's lying, lying zine, and I mortal could spear them without a rope. If I had iron, my eyesight, my footstep, and my hind grip, have I failed money a day, sign, sign? And then how could I save you? But there was a path here, irons, though maybe, if we could see it, you would rather bide where we are. His name be praised. He ejaculated suddenly. Their sign coming down the craggy now. Then exalting his voice, he hillowed out to the daring adventurer, such instructions as his former practice, and the remembrance of local circumstances, suddenly forced upon his mind. You're right, you're right, that gate, that gate, fasten the rope-wheel round Crumby's horn, that's the muckle-black stein. Cast white plies round it, that's it. Now, wise yourself, a wheel is a word, a wee mire, yet to that either stein. We'd kite it, the cat's lug. There used to be the root, or an oak tree there, and that'll do. Canny now lad, canny now. Tuck tent and take time. Lord bless you, take time. There, wheel. Now you won't get to Bessie's apron, that's the muckle-bride flat-bloomstone. And then I think, where you help and the tallow together, I'll win at you, and then we'll be able to get up with the young lady and Sir Arthur. The adventurer, following the directions of old Eddie, flung him down the end of the rope, which he secured around Miss Wardour, robbing her previously in his own blue gown to preserve her as much as possible from injury. Then availing himself of the rope, which was made fast at the other end, he began to ascend the face of the crag, a most precarious and dizzy undertaking, which, however, after one or two perilous escapes, placed him safe on the broad, flat stone beside our friend Lovell. Their joint strength was able to raise Isabella to the place of safety which they had attained. Lovell then descended in order to assist Sir Arthur, around whom he adjusted the rope, and again mounting to their place of refuge, which the assistants of old Oakle Tree, and such aid as Sir Arthur himself could afford, he raised himself beyond the reach of the belowes. The sense of reprieve from approaching an apparently inevitable death had its usual effect. The father and daughter threw themselves into each other's arms, kissed and wet for joy, although their escape was connected with the prospect of passing a tempestuous night upon a precipitous ledge of rock, which scarce afforded footing for the four shivering beings, who now, like the seafall around them, clung there in hopes of some shelter from the devouring element which raged beneath. The spray of the belowes, which attained in fearful succession the foot of the precipice, overflowing the beach, on which they so lately stood, flew as high as their place of temporary refuge, and the stunning sound with which they dashed against the rocks beneath seemed as if they still demanded the fugitives, in accents of thunder, as their destined prey. It was a summer night, doubtless, yet the probability was slender, that a frame so delicate as that of Miss Wardour should survive till morning the drenching of the spray, and the dashing of the rain, which now burst in full violence, a company with deep and heavy gusts of wind, added to the constrained and perilous circumstances of their situation. The lassie, the poor sweet lassie, said the old man, money such a night have I weathered at home and abroad, but, God, goddess, how can she ever win through it? His apprehension was communicated in smothered accents to level, for with the sort of freemasonry by which mould and ready spirits correspond in moments of danger, and become almost instinctively known to each other, they had established a mutual confidence. I'll climb up the cliff again, said level, there's daily enough left to see my footing, I'll climb up and call for more assistance. Do so, do so for heaven's sake, said Sir Arthur, equally. Are you mad, said the mendicant, frenzy of horseshoe, and he was the best cragsman that ever spewed toy. Marr by token, he break his neck upon the Dunboya slains. When I ventured up, the huckled head crags after sundown. It's God grace, and a great wonder besides, that you are not in the middle of that roar and see with what you had done already. I didn't think there was a man left alive, would it come down the crags as you did? I question, I could have done it myself, at this horror and this weather, in the youngest and yellowest of my strength. But to venture up again, it's a mere and a clear attempt in a providence. I have no fear, answered level. I marked all the stations perfectly as I came down, and there is still light enough left to see them quite well. I'm sure I can do it with perfect safety. Stay here, my good friend, by Sir Arthur and the young lady. Do you'll be in my feet then? Answered the beadsman, sturdily. If you gang, I gang too, for between the two of us, will I am more than work enough to get to the top of the hue? No, no, stay you here and attend to Miss Wardour, you see Sir Arthur is quite exhausted. Stay yourself then, an eye-guy, said the old man, let death spare the green corn and take the ripe. Stay both of you, I charge you, said Isabella, faintly. I am well, and can spend the night very well here. I feel quite refreshed. So, saying, her voice failed her. She sunk down, and would have fallen from the crag, had she not been supported by level in Oakle Tree, who placed her in a posture half-sitting, half-reclining, beside her father, who, exhausted by fatigue of body and mind, so extreme and unusual, had already sat down on his stone in a sort of stupor. It is impossible to leave them, said level. What is to be done? Hark! Hark! Did I not hear a hallow? The shriek of a Tami Nori, answered Oakle Tree, I can the screw a wheel. No, by heaven replied level, it was a human voice. A distant hail was repeated, the sound plainly distinguishable among the various elemental noises, and the clang of the sea muses by which they were surrounded. The mendicant and level exerted their voices and allowed Halu, the former waving Miss Warder's handkerchief on the end of the staff, to make them conspicuous from above. Though the shouts were repeated, it was some time before they were in exact response to their own. Leaving the unfortunate sufferers uncertain whether in the darkening twilight and increasing storm, they had made the persons who apparently were traversing the verge of the precipice to bring them assistance, sensible of a place in which they had found refuge. A length their Halu was regularly and distinctly answered, and their courage confirmed by the assurance that they were within hearing, if not within reach, a friendly assistance. End Chapter Seventh Volume One, Chapter Eight, of The Antiquary This labor box recording is in the public domain. The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott Chapter Eight There is a cliff whose high and bending head looks fearfully on the confined deep. Bring me but to the very brim of it, and I'll repair the misery thou dost bear. King Lear The shout of human voices from above was soon augmented and the gleam of torches mingled with those lights of evening, which still remained amidst the darkness of the storm. Some attempt was made to hold communication between the assistance above and the sufferers beneath, who were still clinging to their precarious place of safety. But the howling of the tempests limited their intercourse to cries as inarticulate as those of the winged denizens of the crag, which shrieked in chorus, alarmed by the reiterated sound of human voices, where they had seldom been heard. On the verge of the precipice an anxious group had now assembled, Old Buck was the foremost and most earnest pressing forward with unwanted desperation to the very brink of the crag. And extending his head, his hat and wig secured by a handkerchief under his chin, over the dizzy height, with an air of determination which made his more timorous assistance tremble. Hide a care, hide a care, Monk Barnes, cried Caxon, clinging to the skirts of his patron, and withholding him from danger as far as his strength permitted. God's sake, hide a care! Sir Arthur's drowned already, and you're far over the clug, too. There'll be blood as wig left in the parish, and that's the ministers. Mind the peak there, cried Mucklebacket, an old fisherman and smuggler. Mind the peak! Steanie, Steanie Wilkes, bring up the tackle. Eyes warrant, we'll sun-heave them on board, Monk Barnes. Why'd you but stand out of the gate? I see them, said Old Buck. I see them low down on that flat stone. Hilly, hello! Hilly, hoa! I see them myself, will-enough, said Mucklebacket. They're sitting down yonder, like hoody cries in a mist. But do you think you'll help them with scurlin' that gate like an old skirt before a flower weather? Steanie, lad, bring up the mast. Oi, guys, I had them up as we used to bouse up the K-exigen and brandy langsign. Get up the pickaxe. Make a step for the mast. Make the chair fast with the ratlin. Oi, tight and belay! The fishers had brought with them the mast of a boat, and as half of the country fellows about had now appeared, either out of zeal or curiosity, it was soon sunk in the ground and sufficiently secured. I yard across the upright mast, and a rope stretched along it, and read through a block at each end, formed an extemporary crane, which afforded the means of lowering an armchair, while secured and fastened, down to the flat shelf on which the sufferers had roosted. Their joy at hearing the preparations going on for their deliverance was considerably qualified when they beheld the precarious vehicle by means of which they were to be conveyed to upper air. It swung about a yard free of the spot which they occupied, obeying each impulse of the tempest, the empty air all around it, and depending upon the security of a rope, which, in the increasing darkness, had dwindled to an almost imperceptible thread. Besides the hazard of committing a human being to the vacant atmosphere in such a slight means of conveyance, there was the fearful danger of the chair, and its occupant being dashed either by the wind or the vibrations of the cord against the rugged face of the precipice. But to diminish the risk as much as possible, the experienced semen had let down with the chair another line, which being attached to it, and held by the persons beneath, might serve by way of guy, as Mucklebacket expressed it, to render its descent in some measure steady and regular. Still, to commit oneself in such a vehicle, through a howling tempest of wind and rain, with a beatling precipice above and a raging abyss below, required that courage which to despair alone can inspire. Yet, while it is the sounds and sights of danger were, both above, beneath, and around, and doubtful and dangerous as the mode of escaping appeared to be, Lovell and the old mendicant agreed after a moment's consultation, and after the former, by a sudden strong pull, had at his own imminent risk, ascertained the security of the rope, that it would be best to secure Miss Wardor in the chair, and trusted the tenderness and care of those above, for her being safely craned up to the top of the crag. Let my father go first, exclaimed Isabella, for God's sake, my friends, place him first in safety. It cannot be Miss Wardor, said Lovell. Your life must be first secured, the rope which bears your weight may, I will not listen to a reason so selfish. But you won't listen to it, my bonnie lassie, said Okultry. For I had lives depend on it, besides, when you get on the top with a high yonder, you can guide them around and guess what's ganging on in these patums or ours, and so Arthur's far by that, as I'm thinking. Struck with the truth of this reasoning, she exclaimed, True, most true, I am ready and willing to undertake the first risk, what shall I say to our friends above? Just to look that their tackle does not graze on the face of the crag, and to let the chair down, and draw it up hoolly and fatty, we will hallow when we are ready. With the sedulous attention of a parent to a child, Lovell bowed in Miss Wardour with his handkerchief, netcloth and the mendicant's leather belt, to the back and arms of the chair, ascertaining accurately the security of each knot, while Okultry kept Sir Arthur quiet. What are you doing with my vine? What are you doing? She shall not be separated from me. Isabelle, stay with me, I command you. Lord, say, Sir Arthur, hide your tongue and be thankful to God that there's wiser folk than you to manage this drum. Cried the beggar, worn out by the unreasonable exclamations of the poor baronette. Farewell, my father, murmured Isabelle, farewell my friends, and shutting her eyes as Eddie's experience recommended, she gave the signal to Lovell, and he to those who were above. She rose, while the chair in which she sat was kept steady by the line which Lovell managed beneath. With a beating heart he watched the flutter of her white dress and tell the vehicle was on a level with the brink of the precipice. Canny now, lads, canny now! exclaimed Old Mucklebacket, who acted as Commodore. Swerve the yard a bit. Now! There! There she sits safe on dry land. A loud shout announced the successful experiment to her fellow sufferers beneath, who replied with a ready and cheerful hallue. Monk Barnes, in his ecstasy of joy, stripped his gray coat to wrap up the young lady and would have pulled off his coat and waistcoat for the same purpose, had he not been withheld by the cautious caxon. Hide a carousel! Your honour will be killed with the host. You know, get out to your night-call this fortnight. And that will suit us uncool. Nay, nay, there's the chariot down by. Let's why the folk carry the young lady there. Your right, said the antiquary, readjusting the sleeves and collar of his coat. Your right, caxon, this is a naughty night to swim in. Miss Warder, let me convey you to the chariot. Not for worlds, until I see my father safe. In a few distinct words, even seeing how much her resolution had surmounted even the mortal fear of so agitated in the hazard, she explained the nature of the situation beneath and the wishes of Lovell and Ocultry. Right, right, that's right, too. I should like to see the sun of Sir Gamelin de Guard over on dry land myself. I have a notion he would sign the abjuration oath and the ragman roll to boot and acknowledge Queen Mary to be nothing better than she should be to get alongside my bottle of old port that he ran away from and left scarce begun. But he's safe now, and here he comes. For the chair was again lowered and Sir Arthur made fast in it without much consciousness on his own part. Here he comes. Bow us away, my boys. Candy with him. A pedigree of a hundred links is hanging on a ten-penny-tow. The whole barony of knock when it depends on three plies of hemp. Respisay finum, respisay funum. Look to your end. Look to a rope's end. Welcome, welcome, my good old friend, to firm land, though I cannot say to warm land or to dry land. Accord forever against fifty-thousand of water, though not in the sense of the base proverb, a fico for the phrase, better sos per funum than sos per coal. While Old Buck ran on in this way, Sir Arthur was safely wrapped in the close embraces of his daughter, who, assuming the authority which the circumstances demanded, ordered some of the assistants to convey him to the chariot, promising to follow in a few minutes. She lingered on the cliff, holding an old countryman's arm to witness probably the safety of those whose dangers she had shared. What have we here? said Old Buck, what patched and weather-beaten matter is this? Then as the torches allumed the rough face and gray hairs of old oak-o-tree, what is it, thou? Calm, old mocker, I must needs be friends with thee, but who the devil makes up your party besides? Hind that's wheel-worth and he twy us, monk-barns. It's the young stranger lad they call you Lovell, and he's behaved this blessed night as if he had three lives to rely on and was willing to waste thine eye rather than endanger either folks. Khai huli sirs as ye, wide-win an old man's blessing. Mind there's nobody below now to hide the guy. Hayakara that cag's looks corner. Bind wheel-life, crummy's horn. Have a care indeed, that good old buck. What? Is it my Rara Avis, my black swan, my phoenix of companions may care of him, Mucklebacket. As Mucklecare, as if he were a grey beard of Randy, and I cannot take mere of this hair, were like John Harlow's. You'll hold my hearts, bose away with him. Lovell did, in fact, run a much greater risk than any of his precursors. His weight was not sufficient to render his assent steady amid such a storm of wind, and he swung like an agitated pendulum at the risk of being dashed against the rocks. But he was young, bold and active, and with the assistance of the beggar stout Pike staff, which he had retained by advice of the proprietor, contrived to bear himself from the face of the precipice, and the yet more hazardous projecting cliffs which buried at surface, tossed in empty space like an idle and unsubstantial feather, with the motion that agitated and with dizziness. He retained his alertness of exertion and presence of mind, and it was not until he was safely grounded upon the summit of the cliff that he felt temporary and giddy sickness. As he recovered from a sort of half-spoon, he cast his eyes eagerly around. The object which they would most willingly have sought was already in the act of vanishing. Her white garment was just discernible as she followed on the path which her father had taken. She had lingered till she saw the last of their company rescued from danger, and until she had been assured by the hoarse voice of Mucklebackit that the calendar had come off with unbreezyed veins and that he was but in a kind of dwem. The level was not aware that she had expressed in his fate even this degree of interest, which though nothing more than was due to a stranger in such an hour of peril, he would have gladly purchased by braving even more imminent danger than he had that evening been exposed to. The beggar she had already commanded to come to knock Winnick that night. He made an excuse. Then tomorrow let me see you. The old man promised to obey. Old Buck thrust something into his hand. Ocultry looked at it by the torchlight and returned it. An eye, an eye. I never take God. Besides Muck Barnes, your wine may be ruined in the morn. Then turned into the group of fishermen in peasants. Nicers, what will guide me a supper and some clean pea-stry? I, and I, and I answered many a ready voice. How ill since I it is and I can only sleep and I barn a twince. I guide down with Sander's eye a soup or something comfortable about his beggin. And Barnes, how may we live to put Ocultry in mind some other night that you have promised me quarters in my arms. And away you went with the fishermen. Old Buck laid the band of strong possession on level. Day of the stride ease, go to Fairport this night young man. You must go home with me to Muck Barnes. Why man, you have been a hero, a perfect Sir William Wallace and a good lad. Take hold of my arm. I'm not a prime support in such a wind but Caxon shall help us out. Here you old idiot, come on the other side of me. And how the devil got you down to that infertile Bessie's apron as they call it. Bessie they? Why, cursor, she's spread out that vile pen and or banner of womankind like all the rest of her sex to allure her motories to death and I have long observed fowlers practice that past down the cliff. But how in the name of all that is wonderful came you to discover the danger of the Pettish Baronet and his far more deserving daughter. I saw them from the verge of the precipice, from the verge. And what possessed you? Dumosa pandere proquel de rupe. Though Dumosa is not the appropriate epithet. What the tail man tempted you to verge of the crag? Why, I like to see the gathering and growling of the coming storm or in your own classical language, Mr. Old Buck, Swalway, Mari Magno, and so forth. But here we reach the turn to Fairport. I must wish you good night. Not a step, not a paste, not an inch, not a chathmont as I may say. The meaning of which word is the meaning that think themselves antiquaries. I am clear we should read salmon length for chathmont's length. You are aware that the space allotted for the passage of a salmon through a dam, dike, or weir by statute is the length within which a full-grown pig can turn himself around. Now I have a scheme to prove that as terrestrial objects were thus appealed to for ascertaining submarine measurement. So it must be supposed that they were established as gauges of the extent of land. Chathmont, salmon you see the close alliance of the sounds dropping out two H's and a T and assuming an L makes the whole difference. I wish to have a no antiquarian derivation had demanded heavier concessions. But my dear sir, I really must go home. I am wet to the skin. Shout have my nightgown man and slippers and catch the antiquarian fever as men do the plague by wearing infected garments. Nay, I know what you would be at. You are afraid to put the old bachelor to charges. What is there not the remains of that glorious chicken pie which Mayo Arbitrio is better cold than hot? And that bottle of my oldest port out of which the silly brain sick baronet whom I cannot pardon had just taken one glass when his infirm noodle went a wool gathering after Gamelene de Guardeauver. So saying he dragged level forward till the Palmer's port of Montvarnes received them. Never perhaps had it admitted to pedestrians more needing rest for Montvarnes' fatigue had been a degree very contrary to his usual habits and his more young and robust mind which had harassed and wearied him even more than his extraordinary exertions of body. End Chapter Eighth Volume One Chapter Ninth of the Antiquary This labor box recording is in the public domain The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott Chapter Ninth Be brave she cried You yet may be our guest our haunted room was ever held while our can the sight sustain of rustling curtains and the clinking chain If your courageous tongue have powers to talk when round your bed the horde ghost shall walk If you dare ask it why it leaves its tomb I'll see your sheets while aired and show the room True story they reached the room a younger woman kind said the Antiquary Indeed, brother I mind the eye of this theory Maria one of you guided by me she sent a way to the Hackett Craghead I wonder you didn't see her What? What's that you say sister Did the girl go out in a night like this to the Hockett Head Good God the misery of the night is not ended yet But you want to wait Montvarnes you're so imperative and impatient Tiddletattle woman said the impatient and agitated Antiquary Where is my dear Mary Just where you sold me yourself, Montvarnes upstairs and in her warm bed I could have sworn it said old Buck Laffey but obviously you much relieved I could have sworn it the lazy monkey did not care if we were all drowned together Why did you say she went out But you want to wait to hear out my town Montvarnes she guide out and she came in again with the Gardener so I signed and she saw that nine of you were clotted over the Crag and then Miss Water was safe in the chariot she was high in the corner of an hour sign for it's now gang in ten so her ducket was she poor thing so I even put a glass of sherry in her water-grewed right Grisle, right let women kind alone poor cobbling each other but hear me my venerable sister start not at the word venerable it implies many praise-worthy qualities besides age though that too is honorable albeit it is the last quality for which women kind would wish to be honoured but propend my words let level and me have forthwith the relics of the chicken pie and the reversion of the port the chicken pie the port oh dear brother there was but a weaned vines and scarce to drop by the wine the antiquary's countenance became clouded though he was too well-bred to give way in the presence of a stranger to his displeased surprise in the disappearance of the vines on which he reckoned with absolute certainty but his sister understood these looks of ire oh dear Monk Barnes what's the use of making a work I make no work as you call it woman but what's the use of looking cyclone and glitch about a pickle vines and you will hide the truth Yaman Ken the minister came in worthy man Sarah distressed he was and I doubt about your precarious situation as he kited for you can how well he's gifted with words and here he would bide till he could hear with certainty how the man was like to gang with the eye he said find things under the resignation old buck replied catching the same tone worthy man he cared not how soon Monk Barnes had devolved on an air female I have a notion and while he was occupied in this Christian office of consolation against impending evil I reckon that the chicken pie and my good port disappeared dear brother how can you speak of sycphorealities when you have had syc and escape from the craig better than my supper has had from the minister's craig drizzle it's all discussed I suppose what Monk Barnes you speak as if there was no more meat in the house would you not have me off of the honest man some slight refreshment after his walk fry the mines all buck half whistled half hummed the end of the old Scottish diddy oh first they eated the white puddings and then they eated the black oh and thought the good men untell themselves the day will cling down with that oh his sister hastened to silence his murmurs by proposing some of the relics of the dinner he spoke of another bottle of wine but recommended in preference a glass of brandy which was really excellent as no entreaties could prevail on level to induce the velvet nightcap and branched morning gown of his host old buck who pretended to a little knowledge of the metal cart insisted on going to bed as soon as possible and proposed to dispatch a messenger the indefatigable caxon to fairport early in the morning to procure him a change of clothes this was the first intimation miss old buck had received that the young stranger was to be their guest for the night and such was the surprise with which she was struck by proposal so uncommon that had the super incumbent weight of her head preponderant her gray locks must have started up on end and hurled it from its position Lord, hide a carous exclaim the astounded maiden what's the matter now, grizzle would you but just speak a moment, muck barnes speak what should I speak about I want to get to my bed and this poor young fellow let a bed be made ready for him instantly a bed so Lord preserve us again ejaculated, grizzle why what's the matter now are there not beds and rooms enough in the house was it not an ancient hospitium in which I am warranted to say beds were nightly made down for a score of pilgrims oh dear muck barnes what kins what they might do line sign but in our time beds I troat there's beds I know as sick as they are and rooms are now too but you can yourself the beds I'd have been slept in it Lord kins the time nor the rooms aired if I can marry me might I guide down to the mines Miss Becky is I fun to see us and Sai is the minister brother but now good save us is there not the grim room, grizzle truth is there and it is decent order too though nobody has slept in there since Dr. Heavy-starning and what and what I'm sure you can yourself what an idea you want to expose the young gentleman to the like of that would you Lovell interfered upon hearing this altercation and protested he would far rather walk home than put them to the least inconvenience that the exercise would be of service to him that he knew the road perfectly by night or day to Fairport that the storm was abating and so forth adding all that civility could suggest as an excuse for escaping from a hospitality which seemed more inconvenient to his host than he could possibly have anticipated but the howling of the wind and the pattering of the rain against the windows with his knowledge of the preceding fatigues of the evening must have prohibited Old Buck even had he entertained less regard for his young friend than he really felt from permitting him to depart besides he was peaked in honor to show that he himself was not governed by womankind sit ye down, sit ye down sit ye down, man he reiterated and ye part so I would I might never draw a cork again and here comes out one from a prime bottle of strong ale right? Anno Domini none of your wasya quasya decoctions but brewed of Monk Bar and Smarly John of the Colonel never drew a better flag and to entertain a wandering minstrel or palmer with the freshest news from Palestine and to remove from your mind the slightest wish to depart know that if you do so your characters a gallant knight is gone forever why does an adventure man to sleep in the groom room at Monk Barns sister pray see it got ready and although the bold adventurer heavy stern dreed pain and allure in that charm department it is no reason why a gallant knight like you nearly twice as tall and not half so heavy should not encounter and break the spell what? a haunted apartment I suppose to be sure to be sure every mansion in this country the slightest antiquity has its ghost and its haunted chamber and you must not suppose us worse off than our neighbors they are going indeed somewhat out of fashion I have seen the day when if you had doubted the reality of a ghost in an old manor house you ran the risk of being made a ghost yourself as Hamlet says yes if you had challenged the existence of Red Cowl in the castle of Glensterm old Sir Peter Pepperbrand would have had ye out to his courtyard made you patake yourself to your weapon and if your trick offence were not the better would have stitched you like a paddock on his own baronial Middenstead I once narrowly escaped such an affray but I humbled myself and apologized to Red Cowl for even in my younger days I was not a friend to the Manomachia or duel and would rather walk with Sir Priest than with Sir Knight I cannot who knows so much of my valor thank God I am old now and can indulge my irritabilities without the necessity of supporting them by cold steel here Miss Old Buck re-entered with a singularly sage expression of countenance Mr. Lovell's beds ready rather clean sheets wear layered a smunk of fire in the chimney I'm sure Mr. Lovell addressing him it's not for the trouble and I hope you will have a good night's rest but you are resolves of the antiquary to do what you can to prevent it me I'm sure I've said nothing Buck Barnes my dear madam said Lovell allow me to ask you the meaning of your obliging anxiety on my account oh yeah Mark Barnes does not like to hear of it but he kins himself that the room has a new name it's real minded that it was there old Robb Tool the town clerk was sleeping when he had that marvelous communication about the grand lovley between us and the furrows at the muscle crag it had cost a hunter-silver Mr. Lovell for loveties were no carried on without and the Mark Barnes that day her great sir Mr. Lovell as I said before was like to be worried for the session for want of paper Mark Barnes there kins will what paper it was but I as more until now help me out with my tan but it was a paper of great significance to the plea and we were to be worried for warrantant oh yeah the cause was to come on he came over to make a last search for the paper that was wanton before a good sire guided to Edinburgh to look after his plea so there was little time to come and gang on he was what a do it to snuff a buddy Rav as I have heard but then he was on the town clerk of Fairport and the Mark Barnes heritors I employed him on account of their connection with the burg you can sister grizzle this is abominable interrupted old buck to heaven you might have raised the ghost of every abominative trot cosy since the days of Waldemür in the time you have been detailing the introduction to this single specter learn to be succinct in your narrative imitate the concise style of old Opry and experienced co-seer who entered his memoranda on these subjects in a terse business like manner he was an apparition being demanded whether good spirit or bad made no answer but instantly disappeared with a curious perfume and a melodious twang Ouida his miscellaneous page 18 as well as I can remember and near the middle of the page hallmark Barnes man do you think everybody's book learn it as yourself but you like to guide our folk look like fools you can do very cell nature's been beforehand with me grizzle in both these instances and another which shall be nameless but take a glass of ale grizzle and proceed with your story for it waxes late Jenny's just warming your band monk Barnes and you might even wait till she's done Ouida I was at the search could they find what was to their purpose I'd say after they toss it out many a leather poke filled the papers the town clerk had a draught punch and even to wash the dust out of his throat we never were glass breakers in this house Mr. Lovell but the body bad got sick a trick of siplen in tiplen with the bellies and deacons when they met which was a myst Ilkenite concerned in the common good of the burg that he couldn't find she guide and to bed he guide and in the middle of the night he had got a fearful awakening he was never just himself after it and he was struggling with the dead policy that very day four years he thought Mr. Lovell that he heard the curtains saw his bed fissile and how do you look at fancy important man it might have been the cat but he saw God tired old gentleman standing by his bedside in the moonlight in a queer fashion dress with money a button and band string about it and that part of his garments which it does not become a lady to particularize which by side and wide and as money applies as as of any Hamburg skippers he had a beard too and whiskers turned upwards on his upper lip as lying little tight eyes but they are forgotten now it's an eyed story Huyen Rob was a just living man for a country writer and he was less feared than maybe might just have been expected and he asked in the name of goodness what this apparition wanted and the spirit answered in an unknown tongue then Rob said he tried him with earse for he came in his head Huyen in this straight he bithought him with a twire three words of Latin that he used in making out the town's deeds and he a nice sooner tried the spirit with that then out came sick of bladder Latin about his lugs that poor Rob tool who was not a great scholar was clean over wind but he was a bold body and he carter carter carter you transform her languages cried old buck if my ancestor learned no other language in the other world at least he would not forget the Lutini for which he was so famous while in this weird little carter bithen with a kind carter that tell me the story it cried a carter if I would give it a highland heart and bang darben until some of his ready's clothes and he did follow the thing upstairs and downstairs to the place we cried the high no coat a sort of a little tower in the corner of the odd house where there was a wriggler useless boxes and trunks and there the guy's guy rub a kick with a tie foot and a kick on the table and then disappeared like a full foot tobacco leave and rub in a very pitiful condition tenuous secessed in our us quote the old buck Maryser Mansett odor but sure enough the deed was there found in a door of this forgotten repository which contained many other curious old papers now properly labeled and served the deed that's strangely recovered was the original charter of erection of the abbey abbey lands and so forth of trot cozy comprehending Moncton's and others into a lordship of reality in favor of the first Earl of Glen Gibber a favorite of James the sixth thirteen it's not worthwhile to repeat the witnesses' names I would rather said level with awakened curiosity I would rather hear your opinion of the way in which the deed was discovered wife I wanted a patron for my legend I could find no less a one than St. Augustine who tells a story of a deceased person appearing to a son when sued but I rather opine with Lord Bacon who says that imagination is much akin to miracle working faith there was always some idle story of the room being haunted by the spirit of Alderbrand Oldenbuck my great-great-great grandfather it's a shame to the English language that we have not a less clumsy way of expressing a relationship of which we have occasion to think and speak so frequently he was a foreigner of which tradition had preserved an accurate description and indeed there is a print of him supposed to be by Reginald Elstrak pulling the press with his own hand as it works off the sheets of his scarce edition of the Augsburg Confession he was a chemist as well as a good mechanic and either of these qualities in this country was at that time sufficient to constitute a white witch at least as old writer had heard all this and probably believed it and in his sleep the image and idea of my ancestor recalled that of his cabinet which with the grateful attention to antiquities and the memory of our ancestors not unusually met with have been pushed into the pigeon house to be out of the way add a quantum suffocate of exaggeration and you have a key to the whole mystery was so so broken that he declared to pass another night in the green moon to get all Monk Marnes so that Mary and I were forced to yield our Y-grisle the doctor is a good honest pudding-headed German a much married in his own way but fond of the mystical like many of his countrymen you and discovering hidden treasure and so forth in exchange for your legends of the green bedchamber and considering that the illustrissimus ate a pound and a half of scotch collops to supper smoked six pipes and drank ale and brandy in proportion I am not surprised that is having a fit of the nightmare but everything is now ready permit me to let you to your apartment as well as your master's too sensible of the duties of hospitality to interfere with the repose which you have sold while meridian by your manly and gallant behavior so saying the antiquary took up a bedroom candlestick of massive silver and antique form which he observed was wrought out of the silver found in a desky and whining passage now ascending and on descending again until he came to the apartment destined for his young guest editors note D Mr. Rutherford's dream the legend of Mrs. Grizzle Old Buck was partly taken from an extraordinary story which happened about 70 years since in the south of Scotland Mr. Rutherford of Boland a gentleman of land or property and the veil of gala was prosecuted for a very considerable sum the accumulated arrears of tined or tithe for which he was said to be indebted to a noble family the titillers lay improprietors of the tithes Mr. Rutherford was strongly impressed with the belief that his father had plans from the titillar and therefore that the present prosecution was groundless but after an industrious search among his father's papers an investigation of the public records and a careful inquiry among all persons who had transacted law business for his father no evidence could be recovered to support his defense the period was now near at hand when he conceived the loss of determination to ride at Edinburgh next day and make the best bargain he could in the way of compromise he went to bed with this resolution and with all the circumstances of the case floating upon his mind had a dream to the following purpose his father who had been many years dead appeared to him he thought and asked him why he was thought that he informed his father of the cause of his distress adding that the payment of a considerable sum of money was the more unpleasant to him because he had a strong consciousness that it was not due though he wasn't able to recover any evidence in support of his belief you are right my son reply of the paternal shade I did acquire a right to these times for payment of which a writer a writer or attorney who is now retired from professional business and resides at Enverisk near Edinburgh he was the person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason but who never on any other occasion transact to business on my account it is very possible pursuit the vision that Mr. may have forgotten a matter which is now a very old date but you may call it to his recollection by this token that when I came to pay his account there was difficulty in getting changed for a Portugal piece of gold and that we were forced to drink out the balance that had happened Mr. Rutherford awakened in the morning with all the words of the vision and printed on his mind and thought it worthwhile to ride across the country to Enverisk instead of going straight to Edinburgh when he came there he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream a very old man without saying anything of the vision he inquired whether he remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father the old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his recollection but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold the whole returned upon his memory he made an immediate search for the papers and recovered them so that Mr. Rutherford carried to Edinburgh the documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of losing the author has often heard this story told by persons who had the best access to know the facts who were not likely themselves to be deceived and were certainly incapable of deception he cannot therefore refuse to give it credit however extraordinary the circumstances may appear the circumstantial character of the information given in the dream takes it out of the general class of impressions of the kind which are occasioned by the fortuitous coincidence of actual events with our sleeping thoughts on the other hand few will suppose that the laws of nature were suspended and a special communication from the dead to the living permitted for the purpose of saving Mr. Rutherford a certain number of hundred pounds the author's theory is that the dream was only the recapitulation of information which Mr. Rutherford had really received from his father while in life but which at first he merely recalled is a general impression that the claim was settled it is not uncommon for persons to recover during the sleep the threat of ideas which they have lost during their waking hours it may be added that this remarkable circumstance was attended with bad consequences to Mr. Rutherford whose health and spirits were afterwards impaired by the attention which he thought himself obliged to pay to the visions of the night End Editor's Note End Chapter 9 Volume 1 Chapter 10 of The Antiquary This labor box recording is in the public domain The Antiquary by Sir Walter Scott Chapter 10 When midnight o'er the moonless skies her pall of transient death has spread when mortal sleep when spectres rise and none are wakeful but the dead No bloodless shape my way pursues no sheeted ghost my couch a noise visions more sad my fancy views visions of long departed joys W. R. Spencer When they reached the green room as it was called Old Buck placed the candle on the toilet table before a huge mirror with a black Japan frame surrounded by dressing boxes of the same and looked around him with something of a disturbed expression of countenance I am seldom in this apartment he said and never without yielding to a melancholy feeling not of course on account of the childish nonsense that Grizzle was telling you but owing to circumstances of an early and unhappy attachment it is at such moments as these, Mr. Lovell that we feel the changes of time the same objects are before us those inanimate things which we have gazed on in wayward infancy and impetuous youth in anxious and scheming manhood they are permanent and the same but when we look upon them in cold, unfeeling old age can we, change in our temper our pursuits, our feelings change in our form our limbs and our strength can we be ourselves called the same or do we not rather look back with a sort of wonder upon our former selves as being separate and distinct from what we now are the philosopher who appealed from Philip inflamed with wine to Philip in his hours of sobriety did not choose a judge so different as if he had appealed from Philip in his youth to Philip in his old age I cannot but be touched with the feeling so beautifully expressed in a poem which I have heard repeated Reader's note probably Wordsworth's lyrical ballads not as yet been published and Reader's note my eyes are dim with childish tears my heart is idly stirred for the same sound is in my ears which in those days I heard thus fares it still in our decay and yet the wiser mind mourns less for what time takes away than what he leaves behind while time cures every wound and though the scar may remain occasionally ache yet the early sagony of its recent infliction is felt no more so sane he shook Lovell cordially by the hand wished him good night and took his leave step after step Lovell could trace his house retreat along the various passages and each door which he closed behind him fell with the sound more distant and dead the guest thus separated from the living world took up the candle and surveyed the apartment the fire blazed cheerfully Mrs. Grizzle's attention had left some fresh wood should he choose to continue it and the apartment had a comfortable though not a lively appearance it was hung with tapestry which the looms of Arras had produced in the 16th century and which the learned typographer so often mentioned had brought with him as a sample the arts of the continent the subject was a hunting piece and as the leafy boughs of the forest trees branching over the tapestry formed the predominant color the apartment had thus acquired its name of the green chamber grim figures in the old Flemish dress with slash doublets covered with ribbons short cloaks and trunk hose were engaged in holding greyhounds or stag hounds in the leash or cheering them upon the objects of their game others with boar spears swords and old fashion guns were attacking stags or boars whom they had brought to bay the branches of the woven forest were crowded with fowls of various kinds each depicted with its proper plumage it seemed as if the prolific and rich invention of old Chaucer had animated the Flemish artist with its profusion an old buck had accordingly caused the following verses from that ancient and excellent poet to be embroidered in gothic letters on a sort of border which he had added to the tapestry low here be oaky screet straight as a line under the witch the grass so fresh of line beef newly sprung at eight foot or nine average tree while from its fellow grew with branches broad laid in with leaves new that sprung out against the some sheen some golden red and some a glad bright green and in another canton was the following similar legend and many an art and many an hind was both before me and behind of fawns, sounders, books and doves was full of wood and many rows and many squirrels that usate high on the trees and nutsate the bed was of a dark and faded green rot to correspond with the tapestry but by a more modern and less skillful hand the large and heavy stuffed bottom chairs with black ebony backs embroidered after the same pattern and a lofty mirror over the antique chimney piece corresponded in its mounting with that on the old fashioned toilet I have heard mother level as he took a cursory view of the room in its furniture that ghost often chose the best room in the mansion to which they attach themselves and I cannot disapprove of the taste of the disembodied printer of the Augsburg Confession but he found it so difficult to fix his mind upon the stories which had been told him of an apartment with which they seemed so singularly to correspond that he almost regretted the absence of those agitated feelings half fear half curiosity which sympathize with the old legends of awe and wonder from which the anxious reality of his own hopeless passion at present detached him for he now only felt emotions like those expressed in the lines ah cruel maid how has thou changed the temper of my mind my heart by thee from all the strange becomes like thee unkind he endeavored to conjure up something like the feelings which would at another time have been congenial to his situation but his heart had no room for these vagaries of imagination the recollection of Miss Wardour determined not to acknowledge him when compelled to endure his society and have been seen her purpose to escape from it would have alone occupied his imagination exclusively but with this were united recollections more agitating if less painful her hair breath escape the fortune and assistance which he had been able to render her yet what was his requital she left the cliff while his fate was yet doubtful while it was uncertain whether her preserver had not lost the life which he had exposed for her so freely surely gratitude at least called for some little interest in his fate but no she could not be selfish or unjust it was no part of her nature she only desired to shut the door against hope and even in compassion to him to extinguish her passion which she could never return but this loverlike mode of reasoning was not likely to reconcile him to his fate since the more amiable his imagination presented Miss Wardour the more inconsolable he felt he should be rendered by the extinction of his hopes he was indeed cautious of possessing the power of removing her prejudices on some points but even in extremity he determined to keep the original determination which he had formed of ascertaining that she desired an explanation ere he intruded one upon her and turned the matter as he would not regard his suit as desperate there was something of embarrassment as well as of grave surprise in her look when Old Buck presented him and perhaps upon second thoughts the one was assumed to cover the other he would not relinquish a pursuit which had already cost him such pains plans suiting the romantic temper of the brain that entertained them chased each other through his head thick and irregular as the motes of the sun beam and long after he had laid himself to rest continued to prevent the repose which he greatly needed then wearied by the uncertainty and difficulties with which each scheme appeared to be attended he bent up his mind to the strong effort of shaking off his love like dew drops from the lion's mane and resuming those studies in that career of life which his unrequited affection had so long and so fruitlessly interrupted in this last resolution he endeavored to fortify himself by every argument which pride as well as reason could suggest she shall not suppose he said that presuming on an accidental service to her or to her father I am desirous to intrude myself upon that notice to which personally she considered me as having no title I will see her no more our return to the land which if it affords none fairer has at least many as fair and less haughty than Miss Wardour tomorrow I will bid adieu to these northern shores and to her who is as cold and relentless as her climate when he had for some time rooted over this sturdy resolution exhausted nature at length gave way and despite of wrath, doubt, and anxiety he sank into slumber it is seldom that sleep after such violent agitation is either sound or refreshing love was disturbed by a thousand baseless and confused visions he was a bird he was a fish or he flew like the one and swam like the other qualities which would have been very essential to his safety a few hours before then Miss Wardour was a siren or a bird of paradise her father a triton or a seagull and Old Buck alternately a porpoise and a cormorant these agreeable imaginations were varied by all the usual vagaries of a feverish stream the air refused to bear the visionary the water seemed to burn him the rocks felt like down pillows as he was dashed against them whatever he undertook failed in some strange and unexpected manner and whatever attracted his attention underwent as he attempted to investigate it some wild and wonderful metamorphosis while his mind continued all the while in some degree cautious of the delusion from which it in vain struggled to free itself by awaking fever symptoms all with which those who are haunted by the night hag whom the littered call ephialties are but too well acquainted at length these crude fantasmata arranged themselves into something more regular if indeed the imagination of Lovell after he awoke for it was by no means the faculty in which his mind was least rich did not gradually insensibly and unintentionally arrange in better order the scene of which his sleep presented it may be a less distinct outline or it is possible that his feverish agitation may have assisted him in forming the vision leaving this discussion to the learned we will say that after succession of wild images such as we have above described our hero for such we must acknowledge him so far regained a consciousness of locality asked to remember where he was and the whole furniture of the green chamber was depicted to his lumbering eye and here once more let me protest that there should be so much old fashioned faith left among this shrewd and skeptical generation as to suppose that what follows was an impression conveyed rather by the eye than by the imagination I do not impugn their doctrine he was then or imagined himself brought awake in the green chamber gazing upon the flickering and occasional flame which the unconsumed remnants of the faggots sent forth as one by one they fell down upon the red embers into which the principal part of the boughs to which they belonged had crumbled away insensibly the legend of Aldo Grand Oldenbuck and his mysterious visits to the inmates of the chamber awoken his mind and with it as we often feel in dreams an anxious and fearful expectation which seldom fails instantly before our mind's eye the object of our fear brighter sparkles of light flash from the chimney with such intense brilliancy as to enlighten all the room the tapestry waved wildly on the wall till its dusky forms seemed to become animated the hunters blew their horns the stag seemed to fly the board resist and the hounds to assail the one and pursue the other the cry of deer mangled by throttling dogs the shouts of men and the clatter of horses hooves seemed at once to surround him while every group pursued with all the fury of the chase the employment in which the artist had represented them is engaged Lovell looked on this strange scene, devoid of wonder which seldom intrudes itself upon the sleeping fancy but with an anxious sensation of awful fear at length an individual figure among the tissueed huntsmen as he gazed upon them more fixedly seemed to leave the aris and to approach the bed of the slumberer as he drew near his figure appeared to alter his buglehorn became a brazen, clasped volume his hunting cap changed to such a furred headgear as graces the burgo masters of Rembrandt his slumish garb remained but his features no longer agitated with the fury of the chase were changed to such a state of awful and stern composure as might best portray the first proprietor of Monk Barnes such as he had been described to Lovell by his descendants in the course of the preceding evening as this metamorphosis took place the hubbub among the other personages in the aris disappeared from the imagination of the dreamer which was now exclusively bent on the single figure before him Lovell strove to interrogate this awful person in the form of exorcism proper for the occasion but his tongue as his usual and frightful dreams refused its office and clung palsied to the roof of his mouth Aldoran held up his finger as if to impose silence upon the guest who had intruded on his apartment and began deliberately to unclass the venerable volume which occupied his left hand when it was unfolded he turned over the leaves hastily for a short space and then raising his figure to his full dimensions and holding the book aloft in his left hand pointing to a passage in the page all of the language was unknown to our dreamer his eye and intention were both strongly caught by the line which the figure seemed thus to press upon his notice the words of which appeared to blaze with a supernatural light and remained riveted upon his memory as the vision shut his volume a strain of delightful music seemed to fill the apartment Lovell started and became completely awake the music however was still in his ears Norseys till he could distinctly follow the measure of an old Scottish tune he sat up in bed and endeavored to clear his brain of the phantoms which had disturbed it during this weary night the beams of the morning sun streamed through the half-clothed shutters and emitted a distinct light into the apartment he looked round upon the hangings but the mixed groups of Silken and twisted huntsmen were as stationary as tender hooks could make them and only trembled slightly as the early breeze which found its way through an open crevice of the lattice window glided along their surface Lovell left out of bed and wrapping himself in a morning gown that had been considerably laid by his bedside stepped towards the window which commanded a view of the sea the war of whose billows announced it still disquited by the storm of the preceding evening although the morning was fair and serene the window of a turret which projected at an angle with the wall and thus came to be very near Lovell's apartment was half-open and from that quarter he heard again the same music which had probably broken short his dream with its visionary character he lost much of his charms it was now nothing more than an error on the harpsichord probably well performed such is the caprice of imagination as affecting the fine arts a female voice sung with some taste and great simplicity something between a song and a hymn in words to the following effect why sit is thou by that ruined hall thou aged Carly so stern and gray does thou its former pride recall or ponder how it passed away no is thou not me the deep voice cried so long enjoyed so oft misused alternate in thy fickle pride desire neglected and accused before my breath like blazing flax man in his marvels pass away and changing empires waning in wax are founded, flourish and decay redeem mine hours while in my glass the sand grain shiver and measureless, thy joy or grief, when time and thou shall part forever while the verses were yet singing love would return to his bed the train of ideas which they awakened was romantic and pleasing such is the soul delighted in and willingly adjuring to more broad day the doubtful task of determining on his future line of conduct he abandoned himself to the pleasing langer inspired by the music and fell into his sound and refreshing sleep from which he was only awakened at a late hour by old Caxon who came creeping into the room to render the offices of I've brushed your coat, sir said the old man when he perceived love was awake the callant brought it fry this morning for that she had on yesterday's scantily feasibly dry though it's been a night at the kitchen fire and I cleaned your shun I doubt you know if you wanted me to tie your hair for with a gentle sigh I, the young gentleman, wear crops now but I, the curling tangs here to guide a bit turn before you guide down to the ladies Lovell who was by this time once more on his legs still man's professional offices but accompanied the refusal with such a du sor as completely sweetened Caxon's mortification it's a pity he doesn't get his hair tied and puttered said the ancient for sure when he had got once more into the kitchen in which on one pretense or other he spent three parts of his idle time that is to say of his whole time it's a great pity for he's a commonly young gentleman how to weigh your old gawk said Jenny, munt throughout would you crease his bunny brown hair with your nasty ooty and then most it like the old minister's big you'll be for your breakfast size warrant hi there's a soup-parch for ya it will set you better to be sliced or knitted then in a laper muck then mend them with Mr. Lovell's head you would spoil the most natural and beautifiest head of hair to Bergen County the poor barber sighed over the disrespect into which his art had so universally fallen but Jenny was a person too important to offend by contradiction so sitting quietly down in the kitchen he digested at once his humiliation and the contents of a bicker which held a scotch pine of substantial oatmeal porridge and chapter tenth volume one of the antiquary this labor box recording is in the public domain the antiquary by Sir Walter Scott chapter eleventh sometimes he thinks that heaven this pageant sent and ordered all the pageants as they went sometimes that only it was wild fancies play the loose and scattered relics of the day we must now request our readers to adjourn to the breakfast parlor who despising the modern slops of tea and coffee was substantially regaling himself with cold roast beef and a glass of a sort of beverage called mum a species of fat ale brewed from wheat and bitter herbs of which the present generation only know the name by its occurrence in revenue acts of parliament coupled with cider, parry and other excisible commodities level who was seduced to taste it with difficulty refrained from pronouncing it detestable but did refrain as he saw he should otherwise give great offense to his host who had the liquor annually prepared with peculiar care according to the improved recipe bequeat to him by the so often mentioned Alderaan Oldenbuck the hospitality of the ladies offered level of breakfast more suited to and while he was engaged in partaking of it he was assailed by indirect inquiries concerning the manner in which he had passed the night we can accompaniment Mr. Level on his looks this morning, brother but he wouldn't condescend it on any ground of disturbance he has had in the night time I'm certain he looks very pale and when he came here he was as fresh as a rose wise sister consider this rose of yours has been knocked about by sea and wind all yesterday evening as if he had been a bunch of kelp or tangle and how the devil would you have him retain his color I certainly do still feel somewhat fatigued said level notwithstanding the excellent accommodations with which your hospitality so amply supplied me ha sir said Miss Oldbuck looking at him with a knowing smile or what was meant to be one you're not to love only inconvenience out of civility to us really madam replied level I had no disturbance for I cannot term such the music with which some kind fairy favored me I doubted Mary would waken you with her scrying she didn't can I left open a chink of your window for for by the geist the green moon doesn't event wheel in a high wind but I'm judging you heard more than Mary's little cheese string wheel men are hearty creatures they can guide through with anything I'm sure had I been under go anything in that nature that's to say that's beyond nature I would I scry it out at once and raise the house be the consequent would like it and I dare say the minister what I don't miss Mikkel and so I told him I can nobody but my brother Monk Barms himself would guide through the like it if indeed it been to you Mr. Level a man of Mr. Oldbuck's learning Adam answered the question party would not be exposed to the inconvenience sustained by the Highland gentleman you mentioned last night hey I you understand now where the difficulty lies language he has ways of his I'm would banish I that sorta worry cows as far as the hindermost parts of Gideon meaning possibly median as Mr. Blattergau says only I'm I'm going to be on civil times for bear though he be a geist I'm sure I will try there that receipt of your feathers that she shown me in a book if anybody is to sleep in that room again so I think in Christian charity you should rather fit up the matted room it's a wee damp and dark to be sure but then we as I seldom occasion for spare bed no no sister dampness and darkness are worse than specters ours are spirits of light and I would rather have you try the spell I'll do that right the muck and I had the ingredients as my cookery book Kaisam there was Burbein and Dill I mind that Davey Dibble we'll can about that though maybe he'll guy them Latin names and Han Peppercorn we are whites of them for Hypericon the foolish woman thundered old buck do you suppose you're making a haggis or do you think that a spirit though he be formed to bear can be expelled by a receipt against wind this wise grizzle of mine Mr. Lovell recollects with what accuracy you may judge a charm which I once mentioned her and which happening to hit her superstitious novel she remembers better than anything tending to a useful purpose I may chance to have said for this 10 years let many old woman besides herself I'd woman muck barns said Miss Old Buck rouse something above her usual submissive tone you really are destined civil to me not less than just grizzle however I include in the same class many a sounding name from Yamblaikis down to Aubrey who have wasted their time in devising imaginary remedies for non-existing diseases but I hope my young friend that charmed secured by the potency of Hypericon with verbane and with dill that hinder witches of their will or left disarmed and defenseless to the inroads of the invisible world you will give another night to the terrors of the haunted apartment and another day dear faithful and feel friends I heartily wish I could but nay but me know buts I have set my heart upon it I am greatly obliged my dear sir but look you there now but again I hate but I know no form of expression in which he can appear that is amiable accepting as a but of sack but is to me a more detestable combination of letters than know itself know is a surly honest fellow speaks his mind rough and round at once but is a sneaking evasive half-bread exceptuous sort of a conjunction which comes to pull away the cup just when it is at your lips it does allay the good precedent fi upon but yet but yet is as a jailer to bring forth some monstrous mal-factor well then answered level whose motions were really undetermined at the moment you shall not connect the recollection of my name with so churlish a particle I must soon think of leaving fairport I am afraid and I will since you are good enough to wish it take this opportunity of spending another day here and you shall be rewarded my boy first you shall see John oh the girl knows grave and then we'll walk gently along the sands the state of the tide being first ascertained for we will have no more Peter Wilkins adventures no more glum and gallery work as far as knock went at castle and inquire after the old nine in my fair foe which will be but barely civil and then I beg pardon my dear sir but perhaps you had better adjourn your visit till tomorrow I am the stranger you know and are therefore the more bound to show civility I should suppose but I beg your pardon for mentioning a word that perhaps belongs only to a collector of antiquities I am one of the old school when courtiers galloped or four counties the ball's fair partner to behold and humbly hope she caught no cold why if if you thought it would be expected but I believe I had better stay nay nay my good friend I'm not sold fashioned as to press you to what is disagreeable neither it is sufficient that I see there is some remora some cause of delay some mid-impediment which I have no title to inquire into or you are still somewhat tired perhaps I warn I find means to entertain your intellects without fatiguing your limbs I'm no friend to violent exertion myself I'll walk in the garden once a day as exercise enough for any thinking being none but a fool or a foxhunter would require more well what shall we set about my essay on meditation but I have that in petto for our afternoon cordial or I will show you the controversy upon Ocean's poems between McCrib and me and I hold with the acute orcadian he with the defenders of the authenticity the controversy began in smooth oily ladylike terms but is now waxing more sour and eager as we get on it already partakes somewhat of old college's style I fear the rogue will get some scent of that story of ocal trees but at worst I have a hard repartee for him on the affair of the abstracted antigonus I will show you his last epistle and the school of them I answer he gad it is a trimmer so saying the antiquary opened a door and began rummaging among a quantity of miscellaneous papers ancient and modern but it wasn't his fortune of this learned gentleman as it may be that of many learned and unlearned that he frequently experienced on such occasions what Harlequin calls lembras de reches in other words the abundance of his collection often prevented him from finding the article he sought for curse the papers I believe settled buck as he shoveled them to and fro I believe they make themselves wings like grasshoppers and fly away bodily but here in the meanwhile look at that little treasure so saying he put into his hand a case made of oak fenced at the corner with silver roses instead prithee undo this button said he as he observed level fumbling at the clasp he did so the lid opened and discovered a thin quarto curiously bound in black chagrin there Mr. level there's the work I mentioned to last night the rare quarto of the Augsburg Confession the foundation at once and the bulwark of the reformation drawn up by the learned and venerable Melanklin defended by the elector of Saxony and the other valiant hearts who stood up for their faith even against the front of a powerful and victorious emperor and imprinted by the scarcely less venerable and praiseworthy Aldebrand Oldenbuck my happy progenitor during the yet more tyrannical attempts to fill up the second to suppress at once civil and religious liberty yes sir for printing this work that eminent man was expelled from his ungrateful country and driven to establish his household gods even here at Mock Barnes among the ruins of papal superstition and domination look upon his venerable effigies and respect the honorable occupation in which it presents him as laboring personally at the press for the diffusion of Christian and political knowledge and see here his favourite motto expressive of his independence and self-reliance which scorned to owe anything to patronage that was not earned by dessert expressive also of that firmness of mind and tenacity of purpose recommended by Horace as indeed a man who would have stirred firm had his whole printing house presses, fonts, forms great and small pica been shivered to pieces around him read I say his motto for each printer had his motto or device when that illustrious art was first practiced my ancestors was expressed as you see in the teutonic phrase kunst mak gunst that is skill or prudence in availing ourselves of our natural talents and advantages we'll compel favour in patronage even where it is withheld from trejudice or ignorance and that's a level after a moment's thoughtful silence that then is the meaning of these German words unquestionably you perceive the appropriate application to a consciousness of inward worth and of eminence in a useful and honorable art each printer in those days as I have already informed you had his device, his impressa as I may call it in the same manner as the dowdy chivalry of the age who frequented tilt and tournament my ancestor boasted as much in his as if he had displayed it over a conquered field of battle though it betoken the diffusion of knowledge not the effusion of blood and yet there is a family tradition which affirms him to have chosen it from a more romantic circumstance and what is that said to have been my good sir inquired his young friend why it rather encroaches on my respective predecessors' fame for prudence and wisdom said Semmel in Selwingmus omnis everybody has played the fool in their turn it is said my ancestor during his apprenticeship with a descendant of old Faust whom popular tradition had sent to the devil under the name of Faustus was attracted by a paltry slip of a humankind his master's daughter called Bertha they broke rings or went through some idiotical ceremony as is usual on such idle occasions as the plighting of a true love-truth an autogrand set out on his journey through Germany as became an honest hand-worker for such was the custom of mechanics at that time to make a tour through the empire and work at their trade for a time in each of the most eminent towns before they finally settled themselves for life it was a wise custom for as such travelers were received like brethren in each town by those of their own handicraft they were sure in every case to have the means either of gaining or communicating knowledge when my ancestor returned to Nuremberg he said to have found his old master newly dead and two or three gallant young suitors some of them half-starved sprigs of nobility forsooth in pursuit of the Jungfrau Bertha whose father was understood to have bequeathed her a dowry which might weigh against 16 armorial quarters but Bertha not a bad sample of womankind had made a vow she would only marry that man who would work her father's press the skill at that time was as rare as wonderful besides that the expedient rid her at once of most of her gentle suitors who would have as soon wielded a conjuring wand as a composing stick some of the more ordinary typographers made the attempt but none were sufficiently possessed of the mystery but I tire you by no means pray proceed Mr. Oldbuck I listen with uncommon interest ha it is all folly however Aldo Brandt arrived in the ordinary dress as we would say of a journeyman printer and conversed with Luther Melanchthon Erasmus and other learning men who disdain not as knowledge and the power he possessed of diffusing it though hid under a garb so homely but what appeared respectable in the eyes of wisdom religion, learning and philosophy seemed to mean as might readily be supposed and disgusting in those of silly and affected womankind and Bertha refused to acknowledge her former lover in the torn doublet skin cap clouded shoes and leather napron of a traveling handicraftsman or mechanic he claimed his privilege however of being admitted to a trial and when the rest of the suitors had either declined the contest or made such work Aldo Brandt could not read if his pardon depended on it all eyes were bent on this stranger Aldo Brandt stepped gracefully forward arranged the tithes without admission of a single letter hyphen or comma imposed them without deranging a single space and pulled off the first proof as clear and free from errors as if it had been a triple revise all applauded the worthy successor of the immortal Faustus the blushing maiden acknowledged her error entrusting to the eye more than the intellect and the elected bridegroom thence forward chose for his impressor device the appropriate words skill wins favor but what does the matter with you you're in a brown study come I told you this was but trumpery conversation for thinking people and now I have my hand on the oceanic controversy I beg your pardon I am going to appear very silly and changeable in your eyes but you seem to think Sir Arthur might in civility expect a call from me Shaw Shaw I can make your apology and if you must leave us so soon as you say what signifies how you stand in his honour in his honour's good graces and I warn you that the essay on castrementation is something polix and will occupy the time we can spare after dinner so you may lose the oceanic controversy if we do not dedicate this morning to it we'll go out to my evergreen bower my sacred holly-tree yonder and have it frondes super weirdy sing hi ho hi ho for the green holly most friendship is feigning most loving mere folly buddy gad continue the old gentleman when I look closer at you I begin to think you may be of a different opinion amen with all my heart I quarrel with no man's hobby if he does not run it a tilt against mine and if he does let him beware his eyes what say you in the language of the world and worldliness base if you can condescend to so mean a sphere shall we stay or go in the language of selfishness then which is of course the language of the world let us go by all means amen amen quote the Earl Marshall answered Old Buck as he exchanged his slippers for a pair of stout walking shoes with kudakins as he called them of black cloth he only interrupted the walk by a slight deviation to the tomb of John O. The Colonel remembered as the last bailiff of the abbey who had resided at Monk Barnes beneath an old oak tree upon a hillock sloping pleasantly to the south and catching a distant view of the sea over two or three rich enclosures and the muscle-crag lay a moss-grown stone and in memory of the departed worthy a born inscription of which is Mr. Old Buck affirmed though many doubted the defaced characters could be distinctly traced to the following effect here lies John O. The Colonel here lies John O. The Colonel here lies John O. The Colonel in his time Oak Wife's Hinnis Cluckett Oak O. Good Mane's Hearth with Marnus with Stuckett he dailed a boulevard in Furlittus Fiva before Yahalei Curkey and I am for poor Mane's Wivis you see how modest the author of this supple girl commendation was he tells us that Honest John could make five furluts or quarters as you would say out of the bowl instead of four then he gave the fifth to the wives of the parish and accounted for the other four to the abbot and chapter that in his time the wives Hinnis always laid eggs and double-thanked them if they got one fifth of the abbey rents and that Honest Men's Hearths were never unblessed with offspring in addition to the miracle which they as well as I must have considered as perfectly unaccountable but come on leave we Jock of the Colonel and let us dog on to the yellow sands where the sea like a repulsed enemy is now retreating from the ground on which he gave us battle last night thus saying he led the way to the sands upon the links or downs close to them were seen four or five huts inhabited by fishers whose boats drawn high upon the beach let the odoriferous vapors of pitch melted upon a burning sun to contend with those of the o-falls of fish and other nuisances usually collected around Scottish cottages undisturbed by these complicated steams of abomination a middle-aged woman with a face which had defied a thousand storms sat mending an ed at the door of one of the cottages a handkerchief closed bound upon her head and a coat which had formerly been that of a man gave her masculine air which was increased by her strength uncommon stature and harsh voice what are ye for the day, Your Honor she said, or rather scream told Buck Caller hadx in whitings a banach fluke and a cock-pedal how much for the banach fluke and cock-pedal demanded the antiquary four white sheelings and sex-pents answered than I had four devils and six of their imps retorted the antiquary do you think I am mad, Maggie? how did you think rejoined the varago setting her arms akimbo that my men and my sons are to guide to the sea in weather like yestrine and the day sick as sea as it's yet out by and get nithing for their fish I mean miskind to the bargain-mock barns it's no fish you're buying it's men's lives well, Maggie, I'll bid you fair I'll bid you a shelling for the fluke and the cock-pedal, or six pence separately, and if all your fish are as well paid I think your man, as you call him and your sons, will make a good voyage die again their boat twist knock it against the bell-rock rather it would be better and the banier voyage I the toa a shelling for tai-tui-bony fish would that sign indeed well, well, you old veldem carry your fish up to mock barns and see what my sister will give you for them ninety-nine mock barns day to fit I'd rather deal with your self for though you are near enough you'd misgristle has an uncrew-close grip I'll give you them in a softened tone for three and six pence eighteen pence, or nothing eighteen pence in a loud tone of astonishment which declined into a sort of rueful mind when the dealer turned as if to walk away you'll no be for the fish, then then louder as she saw him moving off I'd give you them and a hat does no partons to make the sauce for three shillings and a dram half a crown, then raggy and a dram I will, yarn in my hide-ture and gait, night out but a dram's worth stiller now the distilleries is no working and I hope they'll never work again in my time, said Old Buck Hi, I, it's easy for your honour and I'd like a you gentle folks to say sigh that high stout and wroth and fire and fend in a meeting-clithe and sit dry and canny by the fireside but I knew wanted fire and meat and dry-clies and were dealing a coward and had his sire heart look as worst of I was just too pinch in your pouch wouldn't you be glad to buy a dram-wit with the idling and clies and a supper and heart's ease into the parking till the morning's morning it's even too true an apology, Maggie is your good man off to sea this morning after his exertions last night in truth is he, Monk Barnes he was away this morning by four o'clock when the sea was working like barn with yesterday's wind and our bitch cobble dents an itch like a cork well, he's an industrious fellow carry the fish up to Monk Barnes that I weared or ascended a genie showed written faster but I'll call on Mrs. Grizzie for the dram I sent and say you sent me a nondescript animal which might have passed for a mermaid as it was paddling in a pool among the rocks was summoned ashore by the shrill screams of its dam and having been made decent as her mother called it which was performed by adding a short red cloak to a petticoat which was at first her sole covering and which reached scantily below her knee the child was dismissed with the fish in a basket and a request on the part of Monk Barnes that they might be prepared for dinner it would have been long said old Buck with much self complacency ere my womankind could have made such a reasonable bargain with that old skin-flint though they sometimes wrangle with her for an hour together under my study window like three seagulls screaming and sputtering in a gale of wind but come when do we on our way to knock Winnick End Chapter 11