uld hae haunted me in
the home-coming; and, if I would hae been afeard o' it, it is mair than
I would hae been o' meeting the biggest man in a' Northumberland. But if
I took it hame, why I thought again there would be sic talking and
laughing amang a' wur neighbours, who would be saying that the bairn was
a son o' my awn, and my awd aunt would lecture me dead about it.
However, finding I could mak naething out o' the infant, I lifted him up
on saddle before me, and took him home wi' me.

"'Why, what be that thou hast brought, Sandy lad?' asked my awd aunt,
as she came to the door to meet me.

"'Why, it be a bairn, aunt, that I found on the moor, poor thing,' said
I.

"'A bairn!' quoth she--'I hope thou be na the faither o't, Sandy?'

"'I'll gie thee my hand and word on't, aunt,' said I, 'that I knaw
nowther the faither nor mother o't; and from the way in which I found it
upon the moor, I doubt whether ever it had owther the one or the other.'

"My aunt was easier satisfied than I expected, and, by degrees, I let
out the whole secret o' the story o' finding him, both to her and to my
neighbours. Nobody ever came to own him, and he soon grew to be a credit
to the manner in which I had brought him up. Before he could be more
than seventeen, he was a match for ony man on Reed water or Coquet side,
at ony thing they dared to take him up at. I was proud o' the laddie,
for he did honour to the education I had gien him; and, before he was
eighteen, he was as tall as mysel'. He isna nineteen yet; and my
daughter Anne and him are bonnier than ony twa pictures that ever were
hung up in the Duke o' Northumberland's castle. Ay, and they be as fond
o' each other as two wood pigeons. It wud do thy heart gud to see them
walking by Reed water side together, wi' such looks o' happiness in
their eyes that ye wud say sorrow could never dim them wi' a tear. Anne
will be a year, or maybe two, awder than him; but, as soon as I think he
will be one-and-twenty, they shall be a wedded pair. Ay, and at my
death, the farm shall be his tee--for a better lad ye winna meet in a'
Northumberland, nor yet in a' the counties round about it. He has a kind
heart and a ready hand; and his marrow, where strength, courage, or a
determined spirit are wanted, I haena met wi'. There is, to be sure, a
half-dementit, wild awd wife, they ca' Babby Moor, that gangs fleeing
about wur hills, for a' the world like an evil speerit, and she puts
strange notions into