"But
a' comes o' taking folk on the right side, I trow," quoted Caleb to
himself; "and I had ance the ill hap to say he was but a Johnny New-come
in our town, and the carle bore the family an ill-will ever since.
But he married a bonny young quean, Jean Lightbody, auld Lightbody's
daughter, him that was in the steading of Loup-the-Dyke; and auld
Lightbody was married himsell to Marion, that was about my lady in
the family forty years syne. I hae had mony a day's daffing wi' Jean's
mither, and they say she bides on wi' them. The carle has Jacobuses and
Georgiuses baith, an ane could get at them; and sure I am, it's doing
him an honour him or his never deserved at our hand, the ungracious
sumph; and if he loses by us a'thegither, he is e'en cheap o't: he can
spare it brawly." Shaking off irresolution, therefore, and turning at
once upon his heel, Caleb walked hastily back to the cooper's house,
lifted the latch withotu ceremony, and, in a moment, found himself
behind the "hallan," or partition, from which position he could, himself
unseen, reconnoitre the interior of the "but," or kitchen apartment, of
the mansion.
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