ceese, or else Steenie
behoved to flit. Sair wark he had to get the siller; but he was
weel-freended, and at last he got the haill scraped thegether--a
thousand merks--the maist of it was from a neighbour they caa'd Laurie
Lapraik--a sly tod. Laurie had walth o' gear--could hunt wi' the hound
and rin wi' the hare--and be Whig or Tory, saunt or sinner, as the wind
stood. He was a professor in this Revolution warld, but he liked an orra
sough of this warld, and a tune on the pipes weel aneugh at a by time;
and abune a', he thought he had a gude security for the siller he lent
my gudesire ower the stocking at Primrose-Knowe.

Away trots my gudesire to Redgauntlet Castle, wi' a heavy purse and a
light heart, glad to be out of the Laird's danger. Weel, the first thing
he learned at the Castle was, that Sir Robert had fretted himself into a
fit of the gout, because he did not appear before twelve o'clock. It
wasna a'thegether for sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he
didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see
Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the
Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great,
ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast
it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played--ill to please it was,
and easily angered--ran about the haill castle, chattering and yowling,
and pinching, and biting folk, especially before ill-weather, or
disturbances in the state. Sir Robert caa'd it Major Weir, after the
warlock that was burnt;[8] and few folk liked either the name or the
conditions of the creature--they thought there was something in it by
ordinar--and my gudesire was not just easy in his mind when the door
shut on him, and he saw himself in the room wi' naebody but the Laird,
Dougal MacCallum, and the Major, a thing that hadna chanced to him
before.

Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armchair, wi' his
grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had baith gout and
gravel, and his face looked as gash and ghastly as Satan's. Major Weir
sat opposite to him, in a red laced coat, and the Laird's wig on his
head; and aye as Sir Robert girned wi' pain, the jackanape girned too,
like a sheep's-head between a pair of tangs--an ill-faur'd, fearsome
couple they were. The Laird's buff-coat was hung on a pin behind him,
and his broadsword and his pistols within reach; for he keepit up the