hich seemed, from its
heartiness, and the relief which it evidently afforded him, to have been
long pent up. "Do, man, do--you had better do. _I'll_ be much obliged to
you"--with marked emphasis on the pronoun, which he further increased by
a gentle but significant tread on the toe of the perplexed minstrel,
who, after returning the secret intimation of Jones by a smile and an
intelligent leer of his open eye, handed the fiddle to the laird without
saying a word.

The incident which we have just described was unobserved by any other
party but those concerned in it; or, at least, if it was observed, it
was not understood; and in this predicament also stood he who had the
best opportunity of seeing it--namely, the laird. He saw all that passed
between Jones and the fiddler; but he could not make out what it meant;
nor did he seem to concern himself about discovering it. Having got the
fiddle into his possession, the laird commenced tuning it with great
assiduity, and with a bow stroke that showed he was well practised in
the use of the instrument. The tuning effected to his mind, he struck
up, with great vigour, a ranting Scotch reel, which he played with
uncommon spirit and skill. At first, the novelty of the measure took the
greater part of the audience by surprise. For a time they could make
nothing of it; but music being a universal language, both the spirit and
rhythm of the tune soon began to be perceived and appreciated; and, with
a little schooling from Jones, who seemed not only to understand the
music, but to be delighted with it, the dancers were placed in the order
of a reel; and, by a vigilant superintendence of their motions on the
part of the latter, they contrived to get through the figure with
tolerable correctness. All were delighted with the new dance. It was
repeated again and again, and every time with increased success, and a
diminishing necessity for the interference of Jones, who, having entered
fully into the spirit of the mirthful train, whooped and yelled as
vociferously as ever the laird had done. His enthusiasm was infectious;
all caught it--even the broad-beamed wife of Vander Tromp, who moved
under the inspiring influence of the laird's bow with an agility that no
one could have believed her ponderous person capable of; while the
others, including mine portly host himself, flung, and flew, and
shuffled, as madly as the witches in the midnight dance in Alloway Kirk.
The spell, in short, of th