beating on, only a little surface snow blowing about.

'Weel, jist pit yer shune on, man, and rin up to Miss Naper's upo'
the Squaur, and say to Miss Naper, wi' my compliments, that I wad be
sair obleeged till her gin she wad len' me that fine receipt o' hers
for crappit heids, and I'll sen' 't back safe the morn's mornin'.
Rin, noo.'

This commission fell in admirably with Robert's plans, and he
started at once.




CHAPTER III.

THE BOAR'S HEAD.

Miss Napier was the eldest of three maiden sisters who kept the
principal hostelry of Rothieden, called The Boar's Head; from which,
as Robert reached the square in the dusk, the mail-coach was moving
away with a fresh quaternion of horses. He found a good many boxes
standing upon the pavement close by the archway that led to the
inn-yard, and around them had gathered a group of loungers, not too
cold to be interested. These were looking towards the windows of
the inn, where the owner of the boxes had evidently disappeared.

'Saw ye ever sic a sicht in oor toon afore!' said Dooble Sanny, as
people generally called him, his name being Alexander Alexander,
pronounced, by those who chose to speak of him with the ordinary