?" said Donal.

"It taksna muckle thoucht to think that," returned the inn-keeper,
"whan there they hing!"

"Ay," rejoined Donal, glancing up; "there is something there--an' it's
airms I doobtna; but it's no a'body has the preevilege o' a knowledge
o' heraldry like yersel', lan'lord! I'm b'un' to confess, for what I
ken they micht be the airms o' ony ane o' ten score Scots faimilies."

There was one weapon with which John Glumm was assailable, and that was
ridicule: with all his self-sufficiency he stood in terror of it--and
the more covert the ridicule, so long as he suspected it, the more he
resented as well as dreaded it. He stepped into the street, and taking
a hand from a pocket, pointed up to the sign.

"See til't!" he said. "Dinna ye see the twa reid horse?"

"Ay," answered Donal; "I see them weel eneuch, but I'm nane the wiser
nor gien they war twa reid whauls.--Man," he went on, turning sharp
round upon the fellow, "ye're no cawpable o' conceivin' the extent o'
my ignorance! It's as rampant as the reid horse upo' your sign! I'll
yield to naebody i' the amoont o' things I dinna ken!"

The man stared at him for a moment.

"I s' warran'," he said, "ye ken mair nor ye care to lat on!"

"An' what may that be ower the heid o' them?--A crest, ca' ye 't?" said
Donal.

"It's a base pearl-beset," answered the landlord.

He had not a notion of what a base meant, or pearl-beset, yet prided
himself on his knowledge of the words.

"Eh," returned Donal, "I took it for a skate!"

"A skate!" repeated the landlord with offended sneer, and turned
towards the house.

"I was thinkin' to put up wi' ye the nicht, gien ye could accommodate
me at a rizzonable rate," said Donal.

"I dinna ken," replied Glumm, hesitating, with his back to him, between
unwillingness to lose a penny, and resentment at the supposed badinage,
which was indeed nothing but humour; "what wad ye ca' rizzonable?"

"I wadna grudge a saxpence for my bed; a shillin' I wad," answered
Donal.

"Weel, ninepence than--for ye seemna owercome wi' siller."

"Na," answered Donal, "I'm no that. Whatever my burden, yon's no hit.
The loss o' what I hae wad hardly mak me lichter for my race."

"Ye're a queer customer!" said the man.

"I'm no sae queer but I hae a kist comin' by the carrier," rejoined
Donal, "direckit to the Morven Airms. It'll be here in time doobtless."

"We'll see whan it comes," remarked the landlord, implying the chest
was easi