"But how far, think ye, are we from home now ?" "About a mile and a half," said Tammie.--"Weel, as to the trees, I'll tell ye something about them.
"There was an auld widow-leddy lived langsyne about the town-end of Dalkeith.

A sour, cankered, curious body--she's dead and rotten lang ago.

But what I was gaun to say, she had a bonny bit fair-haired, blue- ee'd lassie of a servant-maid that lodged in the house wi' her, just by all the world like a lamb wi' an wolf; a bonnier quean, I've heard tell, never steppit in leather shoon; so all the young lads in the gate-end were wooing at her, and fain to have her; but she wad only have ae joe for a' that.

He was a journeyman wright, a trades-lad, and they had come, three or four year before, frae the same place thegither--maybe having had a liking for ane anither since they were bairns; so they were gaun to be married the week after Da'keith Fair, and a' was settled.

But what, think ye, happened?
He got a drap drink, and a recruiting party listed him in the king's name, wi' pitting a white shilling in his loof.
"When the poor lassie heard what had come to pass, and how her sweetheart had ta'en the bounty, she was like to gang distrackit, and took to her bed.