Do you know how to cast a sledge hammer ?" "Ay, truly--ask the eagle if he can fly over Farragon." "But before you strive with me, you must first try a cast with one of my leichtach.

Here, Dunter, stand forth for the honour of Perth! And now, Highlandman, there stands a row of hammers; choose which you will, and let us to the garden." The Highlander whose name was Norman nan Ord, or Norman of the Hammer, showed his title to the epithet by selecting the largest hammer of the set, at which Henry smiled.

Dunter, the stout journeyman of the smith, made what was called a prodigious cast; but the Highlander, making a desperate effort, threw beyond it by two or three feet, and looked with an air of triumph to Henry, who again smiled in reply.
"Will you mend that ?" said the Gael, offering our smith the hammer.
"Not with that child's toy," said Henry, "which has scarce weight to fly against the wind.

Jannekin, fetch me Sampson; or one of you help the boy, for Sampson is somewhat ponderous." The hammer now produced was half as heavy again as that which the Highlander had selected as one of unusual weight.

Norman stood astonished; but he was still more so when Henry, taking his position, swung the ponderous implement far behind his right haunch joint, and dismissed it from his hand as if it had flown from a warlike engine.