ou and me last
Lammermas as ever was."

"Shroud!" cried Mrs. Eaves, getting seriously alarmed. "Why, Abel, what
is Cairnhope old church to you? You were born in an other parish."

Abel slapped his thigh. "Ay, lass, and another county, if ye go to
that." And his countenance brightened suddenly.

"And as for me," continued Janet, "I'm Cairnhope; but my mother came
from Morpeth, a widdy: and she lies within a hundred yards of where
I sit a talking to thee. There's none of my kin laid in old Cairnhope
churchyard. Warning's not for thee, nor me, nor yet for our Jock. Eh,
lad, it will be for Squire Raby. His father lies up there, and so do all
his folk. Put on thy hat this minute, and I'll hood myself, and we'll go
up to Raby Hall, and tell Squire."

Abel objected to that, and intimated that his own fireside was
particularly inviting to a man who had seen diabolical fires that came
and went, and shone through the very stones and mortar of a dead church.

"Nay, but," said Janet, "they sort o' warnings are not to be slighted
neither. We must put it off on to Squire, or I shall sleep none this
night."

They went up, hand in hand, and often looked askant upon the road.

When they got to the Hall, they asked to see Mr. Raby. After some demur
they were admitted to his presence, and found him alone, so far as they
could judge by the naked eye; but, as they arrived there charged to
the muzzle with superstition, the room presented to their minds some
appearances at variance with this seeming solitude. Several plates were
set as if for guests, and the table groaned, and the huge sideboard
blazed, with old silver. The Squire himself was in full costume, and on
his bosom gleamed two orders bestowed upon his ancestors by James
III. and Charles III. In other respects he was rather innocuous, being
confined to his chair by an attack of gout, and in the act of sipping
the superannuated compound that had given it him--port. Nevertheless,
his light hair, dark eyebrows, and black eyes, awed them, and
co-operated with his brilliant costume and the other signs of company,
to make them wish themselves at the top of Cairnhope Peak. However, they
were in for it, and told their tale, but in tremulous tones and a low
deprecating voice, so that if the room SHOULD happen to be infested with
invisible grandees from the other world, their attention might not be
roused unnecessarily.

Mr. Raby listened with admirable gravity; then fixed his eyes o