[The true joke is no joke.] You will find the horseshoe hissing hot, Summertrees.' 'You can speak from experience, doubtless, provost,' answered the laird; 'but I crave pardon--I need not tell Mrs.Crosbie that I have all respect for the auld and honourable House of Redgauntlet.' 'And good reason ye have, that are sae sib to them,' quoth the lady, 'and kend weel baith them that are here, and them that are gane.' 'In troth, and ye may say sae, madam,' answered the laird; 'for poor Harry Redgauntlet, that suffered at Carlisle, was hand and glove with me; and yet we parted on short leave-taking.' 'Aye, Summertrees,' said the provost; 'that was when you played Cheat-the-woodie, and gat the by-name of Pate-in-Peril.

I wish you would tell the story to my young friend here.

He likes weel to hear of a sharp trick, as most lawyers do.' 'I wonder at your want of circumspection, provost,' said the laird,--much after the manner of a singer when declining to sing the song that is quivering upon his tongue's very end.

'Ye should mind there are some auld stories that cannot be ripped up again with entire safety to all concerned.

TACE is Latin for a candle,' 'I hope,' said the lady, 'you are not afraid of anything being said out of this house to your prejudice, Summertrees?
I have heard the story before; but the oftener I hear it, the more wonderful I think it.' 'Yes, madam; but it has been now a wonder of more than nine days, and it is time it should be ended,' answered Maxwell.
Fairford now thought it civil to say, 'that he had often heard of Mr.
Maxwell's wonderful escape, and that nothing could be more agreeable to him than to hear the right version of it.' But Summertrees was obdurate, and refused to take up the time of the company with such 'auld-warld nonsense.' 'Weel, weel,' said the provost, 'a wilful man maun hae his way.