without fear should become the virtuous prey of all that love and peace require.

Such was the train of the lawyer's reflections on this scene he had witnessed; but he could not divulge the secret he had become possessed of to Ellen, whose mind was too greatly absorbed in the afflictions of her family, to be insulted with the tale of a lovesick swain; the minister was bent upon other pursuits; and Levingstone might have called down a frown from Mrs. Thornhill's brows, by only hinting at Willie's courtship of the servant of the manse. Reduced therefore to his own contemplation of this pair, he resolved to be on the watch when Bess took the "thieveless errands" in the direction of "Willie's fauld;" and the sun was colouring with his latest tints of gold the ridges of the adjacent hills, when one evening Levingstone espied Bess

VOL. III.

H

taking that track which led in its windings to the evening-tide bustle of Willie's flock.

The fauld-dyke was skirted by a hedge, and this hedge was stocked with trees; on one part a rising hillock overlooked the whole: this hillock was covered with whin-bushes, which flanked the trunk of an old ash-tree; and to this individual spot there was an easy trodden foot-path. Willie's cot in the fauld was close by the roots of the old ash tree. Levingstone's route to the tree was shorter than Bess's by the sheep track, and by good long strides he arrived there just in time to witness the commencement of this attack by the little god Love.

When Levingstone got to the post he had chosen, Willie could be seen sitting on a large oblong stone, close by the gate of the fauld, and looking down the sheep-track as far as it con

tinued in the direction of a straight line. The attitude of Willie was peculiar; he sat rather reclining to the left, his left elbow leaning on the turfdyke, that rose above his head something more than half a yard; his head lay on the knuckles of his fingers, his bonnet reclined over the right side of his head; his waistcoat was slovenly loose; his right arm, half a kimbo, rested on the knuckles of that hand on his right thigh; his knees were at least a foot and a half apart; he looked the living statue of langour; his crook rested partly on the stone, and partly on the ground; his faithful Colly Jay coiled up on the left of his left foot; and an old ram was not a toise from his right foot, watching the quavering frame of Colly, which in his dreams essayed to run, and by a smothered kind of barking evinced, that "it was best to let sleeping dogs lie:" and if we in

clude the situation of Levingstone, and figure to our mind Bess peeping through the rudely-framed gate of the fauld, the groupe would furnish a study not unworthy the pencil of Hayell or Varley.

Whether Bess, who was a philosopher in the article of courtship, was, as she approached the fauld, reasoning prospectively on the good luck that attends the marriage-state when folks strive to do their best, and leave Heaven to make out the rest; or whether she was praying to Heaven, as, being in the minister's house, Bess was reckoned unco guid, that the virtuous Willie and she might be permitted, "gif it war ordained, to buckle to;" or whether she was preaching economy to herself on the "maist thrifty lad having a carefu' wife to store his aumrie and the hallan;" or whether she was enquiring into the wants of wedlock, "healsome, clean

ware, a heart to guide his winnings with all her canny care, a flock of lambs, cheese, butter, meal and woo, and lots o' weans;" or whether she was reproaching herself for not encouraging Willie in his suit, and trembling lest his heart should grow cold, and his smiles and honeyed lips she'd lose, and "perchance anither lass the heartsome heartstrung name of Willie's wife should bear;" is only to be learned from the subsequent conduct of this wily girl; but sure it is, she came up with lightsome heel, unclouded brow, and coyly cheerful, love-beguiling face, and heaving breasts that showed at least a panting heart now freed of that negative laxity which delights to torture and sacrifice the victim of a cruel burning love.

But by this time Willie's head reclined considerably forward, and his chin rested on his breast-bone, and his