you for
fee and bountith."

"An' that's e'en a dream of your own fool's head. What fee or bountith
am I to take from the son of your mother, that fed, clad, and bielded me
as if I had been a sister?"

"And well you repay it, nurse, leaving her only child at his utmost
need."

This seemed to strike the obstinate old woman with compunction. She
stopped and looked at her master and the minstrel alternately; then
shook her head, and seemed about to resume her motion towards the door.

"I only receive this poor wanderer under my roof," urged the smith, "to
save her from the prison and the scourge."

"And why should you save her?" said the inexorable Dame Shoolbred. "I
dare say she has deserved them both as well as ever thief deserved a
hempen collar."

"For aught I know she may or she may not. But she cannot deserve to be
scourged to death, or imprisoned till she is starved to death; and that
is the lot of them that the Black Douglas bears mal-talent against."

"And you are going to thraw the Black Douglas for the cake of a glee
woman? This will be the worst of your feuds yet. Oh, Henry Gow, there is
as much iron in your head as in your anvil!"

"I have sometimes thought this myself; Mistress Shoolbred; but if I do
get a cut or two on this new argument, I wonder who is to cure them, if
you run away from me like a scared wild goose? Ay, and, moreover, who is
to receive my bonny bride, that I hope to bring up the wynd one of these
days?"

"Ah, Harry--Harry," said the old woman, shaking her head, "this is not
the way to prepare an honest man's house for a young bride: you
should be guided by modesty and discretion, and not by chambering and
wantonness."

"I tell you again, this poor creature is nothing to me. I wish her only
to be safely taken care of; and I think the boldest Borderman in Perth
will respect the bar of my door as much as the gate of Carlisle Castle.
I am going down to Sim Glover's; I may stay there all night, for the
Highland cub is run back to the hills, like a wolf whelp as he is, and
so there is a bed to spare, and father Simon will make me welcome to
the use of it. You will remain with this poor creature, feed her, and
protect her during the night, and I will call on her before day; and
thou mayst go with her to the boat thyself an thou wilt, and so thou
wilt set the last eyes on her at the same time I shall."

"There is some reason in that," said Dame Shoolbred; "though why you
should put yo