"It 'll pe a coot 'oman, Mistress Kertope," he said as he came back;
"and it 'll no pe to plame her for forgifing Glenlyon, for he did
not kill her creat crandmother. Put it'll pe fery paad preeding to
request her nainsel, Tuncan MacPhail, to be forgifing ta rascal.
Only she'll pe put a voman, and it'll not pe knowing no petter to
her.--You'll be minding you'll be firing ta cun at six o'clock
exackly, Malcolm, for all she says; for my lord peing put shust
come home to his property, it might be a fex to him if tere was
any mistake so soon. Put inteed, I yonder he hasn't been sending
for old Tuncan to be gifing him a song or two on ta peeps; for he'll
pe hafing ta oceans of fery coot highland plood in his own feins;
and his friend, ta Prince of Wales, who has no more rights to it
than a maackerel fish, will pe wearing ta kilts at Holyrood. So
mind you pe firing ta cun at sax, my son."

For some years, young as he was, Malcolm had hired himself to one
or other of the boat proprietors of the Seaton or of Scaurnose, for
the herring fishing--only, however, in the immediate neighbourhood,
refusing to go to the western islands, or any station whence
he could not return to sleep at his grandfather's cottage. He had
thus on every occasion earned enough to provide for the following
winter, so that his grandfather's little income as piper, and other
small returns, were accumulating in various concealments about the
cottage; for, in his care for the future, Duncan dreaded lest Malcolm
should buy things for him, without which, in his own sightless
judgment, he could do well enough.

Until the herring season should arrive, however, Malcolm made a little
money by line fishing; for he had bargained, the year before, with
the captain of a schooner for an old ship's boat, and had patched