nd wear.

This charm she sung to a wild tune, in a high and shrill voice, and,
cutting three capers with such strength and agility as almost to touch
the roof of the room, concluded, 'And now, Laird, will ye no order me a
tass o' brandy?'

'That you shall have, Meg. Sit down yont there at the door and tell us
what news ye have heard at the fair o' Drumshourloch.'

'Troth, Laird, and there was muckle want o' you, and the like o' you; for
there was a whin bonnie lasses there, forbye mysell, and deil ane to gie
them hansels.'

'Weel, Meg, and how mony gipsies were sent to the tolbooth?'

'Troth, but three, Laird, for there were nae mair in the fair, bye
mysell, as I said before, and I e'en gae them leg-bail, for there's nae
ease in dealing wi' quarrelsome fowk. And there's Dunbog has warned the
Red Rotten and John Young aff his grunds--black be his cast! he's nae
gentleman, nor drap's bluid o' gentleman, wad grudge twa gangrel puir
bodies the shelter o' a waste house, and the thristles by the roadside
for a bit cuddy, and the bits o' rotten birk to boil their drap parritch
wi'. Weel, there's Ane abune a'; but we'll see if the red cock craw not
in his bonnie barn-yard ae morning before day-dawing.'

'Hush! Meg, hush! hush! that's not safe talk.'

'What does she mean?' said Mannering to Sampson, in an undertone.

'Fire-raising,' answered the laconic Dominie.

'Who, or what is she, in the name of wonder?'

'Harlot, thief, witch, and gipsy,' answered Sampson again.

'O troth, Laird,' continued Meg, during this by-talk, 'it's but to the
like o' you ane can open their heart; ye see, they say Dunbog is nae mair
a gentleman than the blunker that's biggit the bonnie house down in the
howm. But the like o' you, Laird, that's a real gentleman for sae mony
hundred years, and never hunds puir fowk aff your grund as if they were
mad tykes, nane o' our fowk wad stir your gear if ye had as mony capons
as there's leaves on the trysting-tree. And now some o' ye maun lay down
your watch, and tell me the very minute o' the hour the wean's born, an
I'll spae its fortune.'

'Ay, but, Meg, we shall not want your assistance, for here's a student
from Oxford that kens much better than you how to spae its fortune; he
does it by the stars.'

'Certainly, sir,' said Mannering, entering into the simple humour of his
landlord, 'I will calculate his nativity according to the rule of the
"triplicities," as recommended by Pythagoras, Hippo