ipes he informs his friend that their landlord, Sir William Worthy,
who, as a Royalist, had been compelled to go into exile during the
Commonwealth, would now, owing to the Restoration, be able to return
home again, when all would be well. Symon has heard the news from the
laird's servant, 'Habbie,' after whom the 'How' or _house_ is named.
Glaud is so overjoyed at the news that he seeks to persuade Symon to
remain and dine with him, offering, for it was before the age of good
roads and carts,

'To yoke my sled, and send to the neist town
And bring a draught o' ale baith stout and brown.'

But Symon wishes to exercise hospitality himself, and insists upon
Glaud, his sister Madge, his daughter Jenny, and his niece Peggy, all
dining with him, in honour of the day. This they are to do. We have here
presented a graphic picture of rural fare on fete-days--

'For here yestreen I brewed a bow of maut,
Yestreen I slew twa wethers prime and fat.
A furlet of good cakes, my Elspa beuk,
And a large ham hangs reesting in the neuk.
I saw mysel', or I cam o'er the loan,
Our muckle pot that scads the whey, put on,
A mutton-bouk to boil, and ane we'll roast;
And on the haggies Elspa spares nae cost.
Small are they shorn, and she can mix fu' nice
The gusty ingans wi' a curn of spice;
Fat are the puddings,--heads and feet weel sung.'

The second scene introduces a new element into the drama. Another
shepherd, Bauldy (Archibald) by name, has also been smitten with Peggy's
charms--and it affords an excellent idea of the simplicity of these
rural districts in Scotland, when he repairs to a poor old woman named
Mause, whom the district reputes to be a witch, to entreat her aid in
turning Peggy's heart towards himself. Bauldy's picture of Peggy, in his
soliloquy, is beautiful in its very simplicity--

'O Peggy! sweeter than the dawning day,
Sweeter than gowany glens or new-mawn hay;
Blyther than lambs that frisk out o'er the knowes,
Straighter than aught that in the forest grows.
Her een the clearest blob of dew out-shines,
The lily in her breast its beauty tines;
Her legs, her arms, her cheeks, her mouth, her een,
Will be my deid'--

The existence of superstition among the Scottish peasantry, a state of
things lasting until well on into last century, is also well brought out
in Bauldy's soliloquy, when he refers to Mausy, 'a witch that for sma'
pri