And stay--down wi' that crockery----" And with a sweeping blow, he threw down from a shelf some articles of pewter and earthenware.

He exalted his voice amid the clatter, shouting and roaring in a manner which changed Mysie's hysterical terrors of the thunder into fears that her old fellow-servant was gone distracted.

"He has dung down a' the bits o' pigs, too--the only thing we had left to haud a soup milk--and he has spilt the hatted hit that was for the Master's dinner.

Mercy save us, the auld man's gaen clean and clear wud wi' the thunner!" "Haud your tongue, ye b----!" said Caleb, in the impetuous and overbearing triumph of successful invention, "a's provided now--dinner and a'thing; the thunner's done a' in a clap of a hand!" "Puir man, he's muckle astray," said Mysie, looking at him with a mixture of pity and alarm; "I wish he may ever come hame to himsell again." "Here, ye auld doited deevil," said Caleb, still exulting in his extrication from a dilemma which had seemed insurmountable; "keep the strange man out of the kitchen; swear the thunner came down the chimney and spoiled the best dinner ye ever dressed--beef--bacon--kid--lark--leveret--wild-fowl--venison, and what not.

Lay it on thick, and never mind expenses.