ing."

"And gude right ye suld gang away as a true man, and so ye shall; for
auld Caleb can tak the wyte of whatever is taen on for the house, and
then it will be a' just ae man's burden; and I will live just as weel in
the tolbooth as out of it, and the credit of the family will be a' safe
and sound."

The Master endeavoured, in vain, to make Caleb comprehend that the
butler's incurring the responsibility of debts in his own person would
rather add to than remove the objections which he had to their being
contracted. He spoke to a premier too busy in devising ways and means to
puzzle himself with refuting the arguments offered against their justice
or expediency.

"There's Eppie Sma'trash will trust us for ale," said Caleb to
himself--"she has lived a' her life under the family--and maybe wi' a
soup brandy; I canna say for wine--she is but a lone woman, and gets
her claret by a runlet at a time; but I'll work a wee drap out o' her by
fair means or foul. For doos, there's the doocot; there will be poultry
amang the tenants, though Luckie Chirnside says she has paid the kain
twice ower. We'll mak shift, an it like your honour--we'll mak shift;
keep your heart abune, for the house sall haud its credit as lang as
auld Caleb is to the fore."

The entertainment which the old man's exertions of various kinds
enabled him to present to the young gentlemen for three or four days was
certainly of no splendid description, but it may readily be believed
it was set before no critical guests; and even the distresses, excuses,
evasions, and shifts of Caleb afforded amusement to the young men, and
added a sort of interest to the scrambling and irregular style of their
table. They had indeed occasion to seize on every circumstance that
might serve to diversify or enliven time, which otherwise passed away so
heavily.

Bucklaw, shut out from his usual field-sports and joyous carouses by the
necessity of remaining concealed within the walls of the castle, became
a joyless and uninteresting companion. When the Master of Ravenswood
would no longer fence or play at shovel-board; when he himself had
polished to the extremity the coat of his palfrey with brush, curry
comb, and hair-cloth; when he had seen him eat his provender, and
gently lie down in his stall, he could hardly help envying the animal's
apparent acquiescence in a life so monotonous. "The stupid brute," he
said, "thinks neither of the race-ground or the hunting-field, or
h