All at once he found himself in a street, partly of quaint gables with corbel steps; they called them here corbie-steps, in allusion, perhaps, to the raven sent out by Noah, for which lazy bird the children regarded these as places to rest.

There were two or three curious gateways in it with some attempt at decoration, and one house with the pepperpot turrets which Scotish architecture has borrowed from the French chateau.

The heart of the town was a yet narrower, close-built street, with several short closes and wynds opening out of it--all of which had ancient looking houses.

There were shops not a few, but their windows were those of dwellings, as the upper parts of their buildings mostly were.

In those shops was as good a supply of the necessities of life as in a great town, and cheaper.