Balderstone!--Mr.
Balderstone! then the castle's gane out like an auld wife's spunk?"
"To be sure it is, callant," said the butler; "do ye think the castle
of as great a lord as Lord Ravenswood wad continue in a bleeze, and him
standing looking on wi' his ain very een? It's aye right," continued
Caleb, shaking off his ragged page, and closing in to his Master, "to
train up weans, as the wise man says, in the way they should go, and,
aboon a', to teach them respect to their superiors."
"But all this while, Caleb, you have never told me what became of the
arms and powder," said Ravenswood.
"Why, as for the arms," said Caleb, "it was just like the bairn's
rhyme--
Some gaed east and some gaed west,
And some gaed to the craw's nest.
And for the pouther, I e'en changed it, as occasion served, with the
skippers o' Dutch luggers and French vessels, for gin and brandy, and is
served the house mony a year--a gude swap too, between what cheereth the
soul of man and that which hingeth it clean out of his body; forbye,
I keepit a wheen pounds of it for yoursell when ye wanted to take the
pleasure o' shooting: whiles, in these latter days, I wad hardly hae
kenn'd else whar to get pouther for your pleasure.
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