his castle wa', and he saw a stalwart carle, in black claes, ridin' up
the loanin'. He stopped at this chuckie o' a stane, an' loutin' himsel',
he took it up in his arms, and lifted it three times to his saddle-bow,
an' syne he rade awa out o' sight, never comin' near the castle, as Mauns
thought he would hae done. 'Noo,' says the baron till himsel', says he,
'I didna think that there was ony ane in a' the land that could hae
played sic a ploy; but deil fetch me if I dinna lift it as weel as he
did!' Sae aff he gaed, for there wasna sic a man for birr in a' the
countra, an' he kent it as weel, for he never met wi' his match. Weel,
he tried, and tugged, and better than tugged at the stane, but he coudna
mudge it ava; an' when he looked about, he saw a man at his ilbuck, a'
smeared wi' smiddy-coom, snightern an' laughin' at him. The laird d---d
him, an' bade him lift it, whilk he did as gin 't had been a little
pinnin. The laird was like to burst wi' rage at being fickled by sic a
hag-ma-hush carle, and he took to the stane in a fury, and lifted it till
his knee; but the weight o 't amaist ground his banes to smash. He held
the stane till his een-strings crackit, when he was as blin' as a
moudiwort. He was blin' till the day o' his death,--that's to say, if
ever he died, for there were queer sayings about it--vera queer! vera
queer! The stane was ca'd Mauns' Stane ever after; an' it was no thought
that canny to be near it after gloaming; for what says the Psalm--hem!--I
mean the sang--

'Tween Ennetbutts an' Mauns' Stane
Ilka night there walks ane!

"There never was a chief of the family after; the men were scattered, an'
the castle demolished. The doo and the hoodie-craw nestle i' their
towers, and the hare mak's her form on their grassy hearth-stane."