by,
was now resolved to dissipate these idle fears, to show at once their
folly and futility.

"Well, Mause, the old lady will have her way, I know; but if she
doesn't rue her cantrips, my name's not Jock; that's all." And here
the speaker stamped with a heavy clouted foot upon the kitchen-hearth,
whither the lady's message had been conveyed.

"Thou maun get thy hammer and pick, lad, and soon, too, I tell thee,"
said Mause.

"I'll do aught 'at she asks me; but--but--to run like some goupin'
warlock to the whame o' destruction, wi' one's een open, it's what no
Christian will do that hasn' forsworn his baptism."

"Maun I tell her so?" inquired Mause, with a significant emphasis.

"Naw, naw; no' just soa; but thee maun--wait a bit; let's see." Here
he began to beat about anxiously for an excuse, which did not present
itself with the same facility as the expression of his unwillingness
to undertake the job. "Eh me!--Jock Tattersall--herd and bailiff now
these twenty years--that I should be brought to sich a pass; an' aw'
through these plaguy women. Well, well; but if a good stiff lie,
Mause, would sarve my turn, I wouldna' care so mich. Hears to me, owd
wench; tell mistress I'm gone wi' t' kye to water, Peg's Well being
frozen up."

"Tell her thysel'," said the indignant Mause; "an' then one lie may
sarve. I'll no go to the dule upo' thy shouthers!"

"There's Bob i' the yard yon; winnat he do for her instead?"

"I tell thee what, Jock," said Mause, "mistress'll ha't done in her
own way; so we may as weel budge sooner as later. But let's a' go
together, an' I warrant our dame will be the first, an' she'll stand
i' th' gap if aught should happen. Besides, courage comes wi' company,
thee knows, an' there's a round dozen of us."

This proposal, in the present exigency, seemed the best that could be
adopted. The whole household were full of misgivings about the result;
yet, sheltered under the authority of their mistress, and themselves
not consenting to the deed, they trusted Peggy would consider it in
the same light, and if she should break forth upon them, doubtless she
would possess sufficient discrimination to know the real aggressor,
and wreak her vengeance where it was due.

Mause was despatched to their mistress, who, after a short period,
starched and pinned, her aspect as stiff and unyielding as her
disposition, consented to take the lead, and shame the unwillingness
and cowardice of her domestics. Immedia