rom himself.

'Betty 'll hear ye,' he said.

'What care I for Betty? She daurna tell. I ken hoo to manage her.'

'But wadna 't be better 'at she didna ken?'

'She's sure to fin' oot whan she mak's the bed. She turns 't ower and
ower jist like a muckle tyke (dog) worryin' a rottan (rat).'

'De'il a bit o' her s' be a hair wiser! Ye dinna play tunes upo' the
boxie, man.'

Robert caught at the idea. He lifted the 'bonny leddy' from her coffin;
and while he was absorbed in the contemplation of her risen beauty,
Shargar laid his hands on Boston's Four-fold State, the torment of his
life on the Sunday evenings which it was his turn to spend with Mrs.
Falconer, and threw it as an offering to the powers of Hades into the
case, which he then buried carefully, with the feather-bed for mould,
the blankets for sod, and the counterpane studiously arranged for
stone, over it. He took heed, however, not to let Robert know of the
substitution of Boston for the fiddle, because he knew Robert could not
tell a lie. Therefore, when he murmured over the volume some of its
own words which he had read the preceding Sunday, it was in a quite
inaudible whisper: 'Now is it good for nothing but to cumber the ground,
and furnish fuel for Tophet.'

Robert must now hide the violin better than his grannie had done, while
at the same time it was a more delicate necessity, seeing it had lost
its shell, and he shrunk from putting her in the power of the shoemaker
again. It cost him much trouble to fix on the place that was least
unsuitable. First he put it into the well of the clock-case, but
instantly bethought him what the awful consequence would be if one of
the weights should fall from the gradual decay of its cord. He had heard
of such a thing happening. Then he would put it into his own place of
dreams and meditations. But what if Betty should take a fancy to change
her bed? or some friend of his grannie's should come to spend the night?
How would the bonny leddy like it? What a risk she would run! If he put
her under the bed, the mice would get at her strings--nay, perhaps, knaw
a hole right through her beautiful body. On the top of the clock, the
brass eagle with outspread wings might scratch her, and there was not
space to conceal her. At length he concluded--wrapped her in a piece of
paper, and placed her on the top of the chintz tester of his bed, where
there was just room between it and the ceiling: that would serve till he
bore her