rsay. He often came over in the gloaming on a news-gathering
expedition. For it was a pleasure to give him news of a kind; and my
cousin, who had not a great many occupations since Kate McGhie had gone
back to the great House of Balmaghie, took a special delight in making
up stories of so ridiculous a nature that Birsay, retailing them at
headquarters, would without doubt soon find his credit gone.

"The way o't was this," Birsay continued. "As I telled ye, I gan frae
hoose to hoose in the exercise o' my trade, for there's no sic a suitor
i' the country-side as Birsay, though he says it himsel', an' no siccan
water-ticht shoon as his ever gaed on the fit o' man. Weel, it was ae
nicht last winter, i' the short days, Birsay was to begin wark at the
Duchrae at sax by the clock on Monday morn. An' whan it comes to
coontin' hours wi' Auld Anton Lennox o' the Duchrae, ye maun begin or
the clock has dune the strikin'. Faith an' a' the Lennoxes are the same,
they'll haud the nose o' ye to the grund-stane--an' the weemen o' them
are every hair as bad as the men. There's auld Lucky Lennox o' Lennox
Plunton--what said ye?--aweel, I'll gang on wi' my story gin ye like,
but what's a' the steer so sudden, the nicht's afore us?

"As I was sayin', I had to start at Auld Anton's on the Monday mornin',
gey an' early. So I thocht I wad do my travellin' in time o' day, an'
get to the Duchrae afore the gloamin'. An' in that way I wad get the
better o' the bogles, the deils o' the bogs, the black horse o' the
Hollan Lane, an' a' sic uncanny cattle.

"But I minded that the auld tod, Anton Lennox, was a terrible man for
examinin' in the Carritches, an' aye speer-speerin' at ye what is the
Reason Annexed to some perfectly unreasonable command--an' that kind o'
talk disna suit Birsay ava. So what did I do but started ower in the
afternoon, an' gat there juist aboot the time when the kye are milkit,
an' a' the folk eyther at the byre or in the stable.

"So I watched my chance frae the end o' the hoose, an' when no a leevin'
soul was to be seen, I slippit up the stairs, speelin' on the rungs o'
the ladder wi' my stockin' soles as quiet as pussy.

"Then whan I got to the middle o' the laft, whaur the big hole o' the
lum is, wi' the reek hingin' thick afore it gangs oot at the riggin' o'
the hoose, I keekit doon. An' there at the table, wi' his elbows on the
wood, sat Auld Anton takin' his lesson oot o' the big Bible--like the
bauld auld Whig th