n his mouth without a glass of brandy.'

"'To such a messenger, and to those who sent him, no apology is
needed,' said the austere Laird, 'so let him depart.' And the clatter
of a horse's hoofs was heard, and the muttered imprecations of its
rider on the churlish treatment he had experienced.

"'Now, Sandie, my lad,' said his wife, laying an arm particularly
white and round about his neck as she spoke, 'are you not a queer
man and a stern? I have been your wedded wife now these three years;
and, beside my dower, have brought you three as bonnie bairns as
ever smiled aneath a summer sun. O man, you a douce man, and fitter
to be an elder than even Willie Greer himself, I have the minister's
ain word for't, to put on these hard-hearted looks, and gang waving
your arms that way, as if ye said, "I winna take the counsel of
sic a hempie as you"; I'm your ain leal wife, and will and maun
have an explanation.'

"To all this Sandie Macharg replied, 'It is written, "Wives, obey
your husbands"; but we have been stayed in our devotion, so let
us pray.' And down he knelt: his wife knelt also, for she was as
devout as bonnie; and beside them knelt their household, and all
lights were extinguished.

"'Now this beats a',' muttered his wife to herself; 'however, I
shall be obedient for a time; but if I dinna ken what all this
is for before the morn by sunket-time, my tongue is nae langer a
tongue, nor my hands worth wearing.'

"The voice of her husband in prayer interrupted this mental soliloquy;
and ardently did he beseech to be preserved from the wiles of the
fiends, and the snares of Satan; 'from witches, ghosts, goblins,
elves, fairies, spunkies, and water-kelpies; from the spectre shallop
of Solway; from spirits visible and invisible; from the Haunted Ships
and their unearthly tenants; from maritime spirits that plotted
against godly men, and fell in love with their wives--'

"'Nay, but His presence be near us!' said his wife in a low tone of
dismay. 'God guide my gudeman's wits: I never heard such a prayer
from human lips before. But, Sandie, my man, Lord's sake, rise:
what fearful light is this?--barn and byre and stable maun be in a
blaze; and Hawkie and Hurley,--Doddie, and Cherrie, and Damson-plum,
will be smoored with reek and scorched with flame.'

"And a flood of light, but not so gross as a common fire, which
ascended to heaven and filled all the court before the house, amply
justified the good wife's suspicions.