he hand of death heavy. When
the sod is cauld upon my breast, who will look after my puir orphan--my
bonny faitherless and motherless Margaret? Where will she find a hame?"

"O mem," said Thomas, "if the like o' me durst say it, she needna hae
far to gang, to find a hame and a heart too. Would she only be mine, I
would be her protector--a' that I have should be hers."

A gleam of joy brightened in the eye of the dying widow.

"Margaret!" she exclaimed, faintly; and Margaret laid her face upon the
bed, and wept. "O my bairn! my puir bairn!" continued her mother, "shall
I see ye protected and provided for before I am 'where the wicked cease
from troubling and the weary are at rest,' which canna be lang noo?"

Thomas groaned--tears glistened in his eyes--he held his breath in
suspense. The moment of trial, of condemnation or acquittal, of
happiness or misery, had arrived. With an eager impatience he waited to
hear her answer. But Margaret's heart was prepared for his proposal. He
had first touched it with gratitude--he had obtained her esteem; and
where these sentiments prevail in the bosom of a woman whose affections
have not been bestowed upon another, love is not far distant--if it be
not between them, and a part of both.

"Did ever I disobey you, mother?" sobbed Margaret, raising her parent's
hand to her lips.

"No, my bairn, no!" answered the widow. And raising herself in the bed,
she took her daughter's hand and placed it in the hand of Thomas Hardie.

"Oh!" said he, "is this possible? Does my bonny Margaret really consent
to make me the happiest man on earth? Shall I hae a gem at Tollishill
that I wadna exchange for a monarch's diadem?"

It is sufficient to say that the young and lovely Margaret Lylestone
became Mrs. Hardie of Tollishill; or, as she was generally called,
"_Midside Maggie_." Her mother died within three months after their
marriage, but died in peace, having, as she said, "seen her dear bairn
blessed wi' a leal and a kind guidman, and ane that was weel to do."

For two years after their marriage, and not a happier couple than Thomas
and Midside Maggie was to be found on all the long Lammermoors, in the
Merse, nor yet in the broad Lothians. They saw the broom and the heather
bloom in their season, and they heard the mavis sing before their
dwelling; yea, they beheld the snow falling on the mountains, and the
drift sweeping down the glens; but while the former delighted, the
latter harmed them