rd?" said McClintock as the
farewells were said. When the others were gone, he made a sign to Van
Lear, who left the room.

"I'm asking you to have Stanley back soon--though he'll be coming for the
lassie's sake, ony gate. But I am wearyin' for a sight of the lad's face
the once yet," said the old man. "And yoursel', Mr. Johnson; if you visit
to York State again, I should be blithe to have a crack with you. But it
must be early days, for I'll be flittin' soon. I'll tell you this, that I
am real pleased to have met with you. Man, I'll tell ye a dead secret. Ye
ken the auld man ahint my chair--him that the silly folk ca' Rameses
Second in their sport? What think ye the auld body whispert to me but
now? That he likit ye weel--no less! Man, that sets ye up! Cornelius has
not said so much for ony man these twenty year--so my jest is true
enough, for all 'twas said in fleerin'; ye bear your years well and the
credentials of them in your face. Ye'll not be minding for an old man's
daffin'?"

"Sure not! I'm a great hand at the joke-play myself," said Pete. "And
it's good for me to do the squirmin' myself, for once."

"I thought so much. I likit ye mysel', and I'll be thinkin' of you,
nights, and your wild life out beyont. I'll tell you somethin' now,
and belike you'll laugh at me." He lowered his voice and spoke wistfully.
"Man, I have ne'er fought wi' my hands in a' my life--not since I was a
wean; nor yet felt the pinch of ony pressin' danger to be facit, that I
might know how jeopardy sorts wi' my stomach. I became man-grown as a
halflin' boy, or e'er you were born yet--a starvelin' boy, workin' for
bare bread; and hard beset I was for't. So my thoughts turned all
money-wise, till it became fixture and habit with me; and I took nae time
for pleasures. But when I heard of your fight yestreen, and how you
begawked him that we are to mention no more, and of your skirmishes and
by-falls with these gentry of your own land, my silly auld blood leapit
in my briskit. And when I was a limber lad like yourself, I do think
truly that once I might hae likit weel to hae been lot and part of
siclike stir and hazard, and to see the bale-fires burn.

"Bear with me a moment yet, and I'll have done. There is a hard question
I would spier of you. I thought but ill of my kind in my younger days.
Now, being old, I see, with a thankful heart, how many verra fine people
inhabit here. 'Tis a rale bonny world. And, lookin' back, I see too often