An' gin ye gang benn the hoose aboot it, I sweir to ye, as sure 's death, I'll gang doon to Muckledrum upo' Setterday i' the efternune.' 'Gang awa' wi' yer havers.

Only gin the mistress speirs onything aboot it, what am I to say ?' 'Bide till she speirs.

Auld Spunkie says, "Ready-made answers are aye to seek." And I say, Betty, hae ye a cauld pitawta (potato) ?' 'I'll luik and see.

Wadna ye like it het up ?' 'Ow ay, gin ye binna lang aboot it.' Suddenly a bell rang, shrill and peremptory, right above Shargar's head, causing in him a responsive increase of trembling.
'Haud oot o' my gait.

There's the mistress's bell,' said Betty.
'Jist bide till we're roon' the neuk and on to the stair,' said Robert, now leading the way.
Betty watched them safe round the corner before she made for the parlour, little thinking to what she had become an unwilling accomplice, for she never imagined that more than an evening's visit was intended by Shargar, which in itself seemed to her strange and improper enough even for such an eccentric boy as Robert to encourage.
Shargar followed in mortal terror, for, like Christian in The Pilgrim's Progress, he had no armour to his back.