black be his cast! he's nae gentleman, nor drap's bluid o'
gentleman, wad grudge twa gangrel puir bodies the shelter o' a
waste house, and the thristles by the roadside for a bit cuddy,
and the bits o' rotten birk to boil their drap parritch wi'. Weel,
there's Ane abune a'; but we'll see if the red cock craw not in
his bonnie barn-yard ae morning before day-dawing.'

'Hush! Meg, hush! hush! that's not safe talk.'

'What does she mean?' said Mannering to Sampson, in an undertone.

'Fire-raising,' answered the laconic Dominie.

'Who, or what is she, in the name of wonder?'

'Harlot, thief, witch, and gipsy,' answered Sampson again.

'O troth, Laird,' continued Meg, during this by-talk, 'it's but to
the like o' you ane can open their heart; ye see, they say Dunbog
is nae mair a gentleman than the blunker that's biggit the bonnie
house down in the howm. But the like o' you, Laird, that's a real
gentleman for sae mony hundred years, and never hunds puir fowk
aff your grund as if they were mad tykes, nane o' our fowk wad
stir your gear if ye had as mony capons as there's leaves on the
trysting-tree. And now some o' ye maun lay down your watch, and
tell me the very minute o' the hour the wean's born, an I'll spae
its fortune.'

'Ay, but, Meg, we shall not want your assistance, for here's a
student from Oxford that kens much better than you how to spae its