One or two, however, followed Caleb for more information, particularly the urchin whom he had cheated while officiating as turnspit, who screamed, "Mr.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.

And now that your anger is ower, sir, wasna that weel managed o' me, and arena ye far better sorted doun yonder than ye could hae been in your ain auld ruins up-bye yonder, as the case stands wi' us now?
the mair's the pity!" "I believe you may be right, Caleb; but, before burning down my castle, either in jest or in earnest," said Ravenswood, "I think I had a right to be in the secret." "Fie for shame, your honour!" replied Caleb; "it fits an auld carle like me weel eneugh to tell lees for the credit of the family, but it wadna beseem the like o' your honour's sell; besides, young folk are no judicious: they cannot make the maist of a bit figment.

Now this fire--for a fire it sall be, if I suld burn the auld stable to make it mair feasible--this fire, besides that it will be an excuse for asking ony thing we want through the country, or doun at the haven--this fire will settle mony things on an honourable footing for the family's credit, that cost me telling twenty daily lees to a wheen idle chaps and queans, and, what's waur, without gaining credence." "That was hard indeed, Caleb; but I do not see how this fire should help your veracity or your credit." "There it is now ?" said Caleb; "wasna I saying that young folk had a green judgment?
How suld it help me, quotha?
It will be a creditable apology for the honour of the family for this score of years to come, if it is weel guided.

'Where's the family pictures ?' says ae meddling body.
'The great fire at Wolf's Crag,' answers I.'Where's the family plate ?' says another.

'The great fire,' says I; 'wha was to think of plate, when life and limb were in danger ?' 'Where's the wardrobe and the linens ?--where's the tapestries and the decorements ?--beds of state, twilts, pands and testors, napery and broidered wark ?' 'The fire--the fire--the fire.' Guide the fire weel, and it will serve ye for a' that ye suld have and have not; and, in some sort, a gude excuse is better than the things themselves; for they maun crack and wear out, and be consumed by time, whereas a gude offcome, prudently and creditably handled, may serve a nobleman and his family, Lord kens how lang!" Ravenswood was too well acquainted with his butler's pertinacity and self-opinion to dispute the point with him any farther.