joined; and supported by its
hilarious testimony the facts therein set forth.

Having thus shortly described both mine host and his hostel, we proceed
to say that, on a certain evening in the middle of the winter of 1651, a
stranger, carrying a small bundle under his arm, walked, or rather
stalked--for there was something uncouth in his gait--into the passage
of the Drouthsloken. He was wrapped up in a Scottish plaid, and wore on
his head the well-known flat blue bonnet of the Scottish Lowlands. In
person, he was tall and spare, with the grave and serious cast of
countenance so characteristic of that people whose national dress he
wore. Unpolished, however, as the exterior of this person bespoke him to
be, there was yet, in his light grey eye, a mingled expression of
determination and intelligence, that never failed to secure the respect
which his manner and first appearance might well have forfeited. His age
seemed about forty or forty-five.

Finding no one to whom he might address himself in the passage of the
inn, the stranger held on his way to its further extremity--no trifling
distance; towards which he was attracted by sounds of laughter and
merriment, issuing from the kitchen of the Drouthsloken, which was
situated at the farther end of the passage by which the house was
intersected, and the same with that which he was now traversing.

The sounds of merriment by which the stranger had been attracted
proceeded from a group of young men, who, standing in the form of a
semicircle in front of the jolly landlord of the house--who, again,
stood with his back to the fire, wielding a huge black bottle in his
hand--were indulging in uproarious laughter at the witty sayings which
he, the latter, seemed throwing amongst them like so many squibs and
crackers.

At the moment that our friend of the plaid and bonnet entered the
kitchen of the Drouthsloken, our jovial host was standing, as we have
said, with his back to the fire--a roaring one, by the way--and looking
the very personification of all that's joyous, and comfortable, and
care-dispelling. A bright and broad red waistcoat covered his portly
front; but buttoned so short a way up as to expose a dazzling display of
snow-white linen beneath. Across this brilliant garment there lay also
the folds of a pure white apron, tucked up with business-like smartness.
Dark velveteen small-clothes, with well-polished shoes, on which shone a
pair of massive silver buckles, compl