I tell't ye he wad either make a spoon or spoil a horn.

I tell't ye, ower and ower again, that he would be either something or naething; what think ye o' that noo ?--See if she kens that Mungo comes from the country; and where the Lammermoor hills is." When I had put down the question, in a jiffie she wrote down beside it, "That boy comes from the high green hills, and his name is Mungo." Dog on it! this astonished us more and more, and fairly bamboozled my understanding; as I thought there surely must be some league and paction with the Old One; but the further in the deeper.

She then pointed to my wife, writing down, "Your name is Nancy"-- and turning to me, as she made some dumbie signs, she chalked down, "Your name is Mansie Wauch, that saved the precious life of an old bedridden woman from the fire; and will soon get a lottery ticket of twenty thousand pounds." Knowing the truth of the rest of what she had said, I could not help jumping on the floor with joy, and seeing that she was up to every thing, as plain as if it had happened in her presence.

The good news set us all a skipping like young lambs, my wife and the laddies clapping their hands as if they had found a fiddle; so, jealousing they might lose their discretion in their mirth, I turned round to the three, holding up my hand, and saying, "In the name o' Gudeness, dinna mention this to ony leeving sowl; as, mind ye, I havena taken out the ticket yet.

The doing so might not only set them to the sinful envying of our good fortune, as forbidden in the tenth commandment, but might lead away ourselves to be gutting our fish before we get them." "Mind then," said Nanse, "about your promise to me, concerning the silk gown, and the pair"-- "Wheesht, wheesht, gudewifie," answered I.