he had to tell him, his wicked heart gave
a throb of joy.

Here, at last, was the very opportunity which he had been looking for:
for, while the heir had been wasting his time, and spending his money,
instead of looking after his estates, the dishonest steward had been
filling his own pockets; and now he would fain turn a country gentleman.

So, with many fair words, and a great show of sympathy, he offered to
buy the land for himself.

"Young men would be young men," he said, "and 'twas no wonder that a
dashing young fellow, like the Heir of Linne, should wish to see the
world, rather than stay quietly at home and look after his land. That
was only fit for old men when they were past their prime. So, if he
desired to part with the land, he would give him a fair price for it,
and then there would be no need for him to trouble any more about money
matters."

The foolish young man was quite ready to agree to this. All that he
cared about was how to get money to pay his debts, and to enable him to
go on gambling and drinking with his companions.

So when John o' the Scales named a price for the land, and drew up an
agreement, he signed it readily, never dreaming that the cunning steward
was cheating him, and that the land was worth at least three times as
much as he was paying for it. There was only one corner of the estate
which he refused to sell, and that was the narrow glen, far out on the
hillside, where the old tumble-down lodge stood.

For the Heir of Linne was not wholly bad, and he had enough manliness
left in him to remember the promise which he had made to his dying
father.

So John o' the Scales became Lord of Linne, and a mighty big man he
thought himself. He went to live, with his wife Joan, in the old castle,
and he turned his back on his former friends, and tried to make everyone
forget that up till now he had only been a steward.

Meanwhile the Heir of Linne, as people still called him--though, like
Esau, he had sold his birthright--went away quite happily now that his
pockets were once more filled with gold, and went on in his old ways,
drinking, and gambling, and rioting, with his boon companions, as if he
thought that this money would last for ever.

But of course it did not, and one fine day, nearly a year after he had
sold his land, he found that his purse was quite empty again, except for
a few small coins.

He had no more land to sell, and for the first time in his life he grew
thoughtf