bit bairn shut up in that
lonesome house with only a miser and a daft man, she had heart pity on
her, and as soon as she had shut her shop one Saturday afternoon, off
she set to Breckonside in a pony cart that she used to bring her goods
up from the port quay.

"It was but a coldrife welcome she gat at the white house of
Breckonside, but sorrow a bit Margaret Comline cared for that. She
tied up her sonsy beast, that was, like herself, fat as pats of butter,
to the yettpost of the miser's garden. And when he came to the door
himself, she did not take a couple of minutes in telling the auld runt
her business, plump and plain.

"'I hae comed to ask ye to put away that daft man,' she said, 'and get
a decent woman for a house-keeper, Laird Stennis.'

"'Meanin' yourself, Margar't Comline,' interrupted the miser, with a
cunning smirk. He had shut the door in her face, and was conducting
negotiations through a crack.

"'_Me_ be your housekeeper!' cried the visitor, 'me that is a ratepayer
and a well-considered indweller in the burgh o' Dumfries. Man, I would
not cross your doorstep though ye were Provost. But I hear that ye hae
this bit bairn in the hoose, and a lassie bairn, too (that's full
cousin's daughter to myself). I have come to tell ye that it is
neither Christian nor decent to bring up the wee thing but and ben wi'
a kenned ill-doer like Daft Jeremy, that has twice been tried for his
life for the shedding of blood!'

"From behind the closed inner door of the cothouse there came a
high-pitched angry cry that garred the very blood run chill as ice in
Margaret Comline's veins. I mean that the thought of it did
afterwards. For at the time she just looked about her to see that
Donald, her pony, was not far away, and that the road was clear to the
light market cart in case that she had to make a break for it. She had
eke a sturdy staff in her hand, that the loons of the port kenned
bravely the weight of.

"It was the voice of the man-wanting-wit, crying out to be at her, that
she heard.

"'She has ta'en from me my guid name,' his words reached her through
the very stone and lime of the house, 'and she wad take the bonnie
siller oot of the black chest that you and Jeremy keep so carefully.
Gie the woman the bit lassie bairn, Laird Stennis, and let her travel.
For less will not serve her, and forbye a bairn is only an expense and
an eating up o' good meat in any man's house!'

"And while the din was at its