till his een-strings crackit, when he was as blin' as a
moudiwort. He was blin' till the day o' his death,--that's to say, if
ever he died, for there were queer sayings about it--vera queer! vera
queer! The stane was ca'd Mauns' Stane ever after; an' it was no thought
that canny to be near it after gloaming; for what says the Psalm--hem!--I
mean the sang--

'Tween Ennetbutts an' Mauns' Stane
Ilka night there walks ane!

"There never was a chief of the family after; the men were scattered, an'
the castle demolished. The doo and the hoodie-craw nestle i' their
towers, and the hare mak's her form on their grassy hearth-stane."

"Is this stone still to be seen?"

"Ou, na. Ye see, it was just upon Johnie Forbes's craft, an' fouk cam'
far an' near to leuk at it, an' trampit down a' the puir cottar-body's
corn; sae he houkit a hole just aside it, and tumbled it intil 't; by
that means naebody sees't noo, but its weel kent that it's there, for
they're livin' yet wha've seen it."

"But the well at the Abbey--did no one feel a desire to enrich himself
with the gold and silver buried there?"

"Hoot, ay; mony a ane tried to find out whaur it was, and, for that
matter, I've may be done as foolish a thing myself; but nane ever made it
out. There was a scholar, like yoursel', that gaed ae night down to the
Abbey, an', ye see, he summoned up the deil."

"The deuce he did!" said I.

"Weel, weel, the deuce, gin ye like it better," said he. "An' he was
gaun to question him where the treasure was, but he had eneuch to do to
get him laid without deaving him wi' questions, for a' the deils cam'
about him, like bees biggin' out o' a byke. He never coured the fright
he gat, but cried out, 'Help! help!' till his very enemy wad hae been wae
to see him; and sae he cried till he died, which was no that lang after.
Fouk sudna meddle wi' sic ploys!"

"Most wonderful! And do you believe that Beelzebub actually appeared to
him?"

"Believe it! What for no?" said he, consequentially tapping the lid of
his snuff-horn. "Didna my ain father see the evil ane i' the schule o'
Auld Deer?"

"Indeed!"

"Weel, I wot he did that. A wheen idle callants, when the dominie was
out at his twal'-hours, read the Lord's Prayer backlans, an' raised him,
but couldna lay him again, for he threepit ower them that he wadna gang
awa unless he gat ane o' them wi' him. Ye may be sure this put them in
an awfu' swither. They were a' squallin' an