as" over the Eildon Hills. The supper was, in the meantime, in the
act of being served up. The old man coughed and told stories, Mary
listened, and Matty eyed her guest with a peculiar expression, which
made him rub his beard, cough more and more, and retire farther into the
recess which he had taken possession of. Nor would the supper draw him
forth; for he said he had supped before he came, yet had he no objection
to drink the ale which Matty handed him, and was as merry as an old man
might be, who had seen so many summers as his beard betokened. Many a
thing they talked of, but they all concerned the farmer, and his wife
and daughter; for the never a word would he say of himself, either as to
what he was, or where he lived--the dry skeleton of a name, Mr
Farquharson, being all he gratified them with, while, in return, he
asked so much of the condition and doings of his host and family, that
one might have thought he intended either to pay their arrears of rent,
or marry the daughter, at the very least. The supper, of which he
partook not, being done, he said he wished not to put them about in
their arrangements, and would be very well pleased to lie in the small
bed behind him, unless that were set apart for some other of the family.

"That ye may weel hae, sir," said Matty on the instant, "if ye hae a
fancy to it. A sma' reward for the guid price ye gae for the cattle.
Mary can sleep for a nicht in the kitchen--for Jenny is at St Boswell's,
and winna be hame before the morn."

"You will have only one night's trouble of me," replied the old man;
"but you may have more of the cattle--eight at least--and I think I will
better pay you beforehand, Mr Ramsay, that there may be no mistake when
the men come to take them away."

And he put into the farmer's hand three times the sum he would have
demanded for the keeping of the steers. The farmer would have refused
the money, but Matty, whose by-play all along had been unnoticed by her
husband, pinched him on the arm, and the words of rejection died away in
his mouth. The parties afterwards retired to bed, leaving the strange
visiter in the apartment allotted to him.

"I never did a better day's wark, guidwife," said the farmer to his
partner, when they went up-stairs.

"Hush! hush! man, ye dinna ken what ye have done," replied she; and the
next moment she was busy whispering something in the ear of the farmer.
He started instantly, cried, "Impossible, impossible!" and st