earances engaged my attention, that of my companion was
attracted by a regular succession of sounds, like a bouncing on the
floor, mixed with a very faint noise of music, which Willie's acute
organs at once recognized and accounted for, while to me it was almost
inaudible. The old man struck the earth with his staff in a violent
passion. 'The whoreson fisher rabble! They have brought another violer
upon my walk! They are such smuggling blackguards, that they must run
in their very music; but I'll sort them waur than ony gauger in the
country.--Stay--hark--it 's no a fiddle neither--it's the pipe and tabor
bastard, Simon of Sowport, frae the Nicol Forest; but I'll pipe and
tabor him!--Let me hae ance my left hand on his cravat, and ye shall see
what my right will do. Come away, chap--come away, gentle chap--nae time
to be picking and waling your steps.' And on he passed with long and
determined strides, dragging me along with him.

I was not quite easy in his company; for, now that his minstrel pride
was hurt, the man had changed from the quiet, decorous, I might almost
say respectable person, which he seemed while he told his tale, into the
appearance of a fierce, brawling, dissolute stroller. So that when he
entered the large hut, where a great number of fishers, with their wives
and daughters, were engaged in eating, drinking, and dancing, I was
somewhat afraid that the impatient violence of my companion might
procure us an indifferent reception.

But the universal shout of welcome with which Wandering Willie was
received--the hearty congratulations--the repeated 'Here's t' ye,
Willie!'--'Where hae ya been, ye blind deevil?' and the call upon him
to pledge them--above all, the speed with which the obnoxious pipe and
tabor were put to silence, gave the old man such effectual assurance of
undiminished popularity and importance, as at once put his jealousy to
rest, and changed his tone of offended dignity into one better fitted
to receive such cordial greetings. Young men and women crowded round, to
tell how much they were afraid some mischance had detained him, and how
two or three young fellows had set out in quest of him.

'It was nae mischance, praised be Heaven,' said Willie, 'but the absence
of the lazy loon Rob the Rambler, my comrade, that didna come to meet
me on the Links; but I hae gotten a braw consort in his stead, worth a
dozen of him, the unhanged blackguard.'

'And wha is't tou's gotten, Wullie, lad?'