I canna write mysell; but I hae them that will baith write and read, and ride and rin for me.

Tell him the time's coming now, and the weird's dreed, and the wheel's turning.

Bid him look at the stars as he has looked at them before.

Will ye mind a' this ?' 'Assuredly,' said the Dominie, 'I am dubious; for, woman, I am perturbed at thy words, and my flesh quakes to hear thee.' 'They'll do you nae ill though, and maybe muckle gude.' 'Avoid ye! I desire no good that comes by unlawful means.' 'Fule body that thou art,' said Meg, stepping up to him, with a frown of indignation that made her dark eyes flash like lamps from under her bent brows--'Fule body! if I meant ye wrang, couldna I clod ye ower that craig, and wad man ken how ye cam by your end mair than Frank Kennedy?
Hear ye that, ye worricow ?' 'In the name of all that is good,' said the Dominie, recoiling, and pointing his long pewter-headed walking cane like a javelin at the supposed sorceress--'in the name of all that is good, bide off hands! I will not be handled; woman, stand off, upon thine own proper peril! Desist, I say; I am strong; lo, I will resist!' Here his speech was cut short; for Meg, armed with supernatural strength (as the Dominie asserted), broke in upon his guard, put by a thrust which he made at her with his cane, and lifted him into the vault, 'as easily,' said he, 'as I could sway a Kitchen's Atlas.' 'Sit down there,' she said, pushing the half-throttled preacher with some violence against a broken chair--'sit down there and gather your wind and your senses, ye black barrow-tram o' the kirk that ye are.

Are ye fou or fasting ?' 'Fasting, from all but sin,' answered the Dominie, who, recovering his voice, and finding his exorcisms only served to exasperate the intractable sorceress, thought it best to affect complaisance and submission, inwardly conning over, however, the wholesome conjurations which he durst no longer utter aloud.