Warlock o' Glenwarlock: A Homely Romance

the room was always dusky, it was never at this season quite dark any time of the night. It was not absolutely needful, except for the little cooking required by the invalid-for as such, in her pr

kle flee upo' the winnock. It spins i' my heid lang lingles o' thouchts, an' dreams, an' wad-be's. N

e, and as she spoke she rose, and lighted her little lamp, though sh

stles in the air to its music, which was so monotonous that, like the drone of

fancy should run counter to that loveliest Will; but a boy's dreams are nevertheless a part of

y, faint, far-off, and dim, of his own mother, and the imaginations of her roused by his father's many talks with him concerning her. He dreamed now of one, now of another beneficent power, of the fire, the air, the earth, or the water-each of them a gracious woman, who favoured, helped, and

rocked like the baby's cradle of the nursery rime, but equilibrium was the merest motion of the will; where the birds nested in its cellars, and the squirrels ran up and down its stairs, and the woodpeckers pulled themselves along its columns and rails by their beaks; where the winds swung the whole city with a rhythmic roll, and the sway as of tempest waves, music-ruled to ordered cadences; where, far below, lo

something gone for ever, he would say to himself, "what matter they are gone? In the heavenly kingdom m

very brain into dreams, rose, and, drawing near the bed, as if to finish the ruthless destru

kin', Cosm

nt pang, and a strange sense of loss:

signals from the depths of his own being; "wherever the creative pneuma can enter

ye maun say yer prayers, an' hae dune wi

ony supper, thank

er as ye're weel kent to be, my bairn. Sae wull ye hae a drappy parritch an' ream? or wad ye prefar a sup of fine gruel, sic as yer mother used to like weel frae my han', whan it sae happent I was i' the hoose?"

ood gruel is a long acquaintance with the fire.-Many a time the picture of that room returned to him in far diff

and were not yet over-as if something was even now being done in the room. But there the old woman slept, motionless, and apparently in perfect calm! It could not, however, have been perfect as it seemed, for presently she began to talk. At first came only broken sentences, occasionally with a long pause; and just as he had concluded she would say nothing more, she would begin again. There was something awful to the fancy of the youth in the issuing of words from the lips of one apparently unconscious of surrounding things;

emingly unconnected, though probably with a perfect dependence of their own, she began to murmur something that sounded like verses. Cosmo soon perceived that she was saying the same thing over and over,

' heel ca' a nail; Rug his lugs frae ane an

elp laughing, and the noise, though repressed, yet roused her. She woke, not, like most young peo

t ye leuch?" she asked, i

e was sayin' something rale funny-i' yer sl

Grannie burst into a merry laugh-w

s-maybe aboot thirty. Onybody nicht hae h'ard him sayin' them-ower and ower til himsel', as gien he cudna weary o' them, but naebody but mysel' seemed to ha

air o' the balla

ie. "An' weel I wat! he was na ane to sing, the au

laird o' that time, him 'at cam hame f

aists 'at naebody cud get a grip o'-as to hoo he had gotten the said siller, an' sic like-the siller 'at naebody ever saw; for upo' that siller, as I tell ye, naebody ever cuist an e'e. Some said he had been a pirate upo' the hie seas, an' had ta'en the siller in lumps o' gowd frae puir ships 'at hadna men eneuch to haud the grip o' 't; some said he had been a privateer; an' ither some said there was sma' differ atween the twa. An' some wad hae't he was ane o' them 'at tuik an' sauld the puir black fowk,'at cudna help bein' black, for as ootlandish as it maun luik-I never saw nane o' the nation mysel'-ony mair nor a corbie can help his feathers no bein' like a doo's; an' gien they turnt black for ony deevilry o' them 'at was their forbeirs, I kenna an' it maks naething to me or mine, -I wad fain an' far raither du them a guid turn nor tak an' sell them; for gien their parents had sinned, the mai

y from the still confused condition of his head, he kept constantly hearing the rimes she had repeated to him. T

' heel ca' a nail; Rug his lugs frae ane an

e, and on and on went

n as weel's a bonny man. But the upshot o' 't a' was an ill ane; for, efter maybe aboot a month or sae o' sic friendship as was atween them, there cam a nicht 'at brouchtna the captain hame; for ye maun un'erstan', wi' a' his rouch w'ys, an' his drinkin', an' his cairt-playin', he was aye hame at nicht, an' safe intil's bed, whaur he sleepit i' the best chaumer i' the castle. Ay, he wad come hame, aften as drunk as man cud be, but hame he cam. Sleep intil the efternune o' the neist day he wad, but never oot o' 's nain bed-or if no aye in his ain nakit BED, for I fan' him ance mysel' lyin' snorin' upo' the flure, it was aye intil 's ain room, as I say, an' no in

ere on his birthday, as on many a day before, he had f

himsel' oot! There was mony a conjectur as to hoo he cam by his deith, an' mony a doobt it wasna by fair play. Some said he dee'd by his ain han', driven on til't by the enemy; an' it was true the blade he cairriet was lyin' upo' the grass aside 'im; but ither some 'at exem't him, said the hole i' the side o' 'im was na made wi' that. But o' a' 'at cam to speir efter 'im, the English lord was nane. He h

n' he cam til; an' I think he was jist gaein' on to tell me mair, whan Grizzie cam to say the denner was ready. That was only yes

at he wad be speikin' aboot, or wha til, in it wad come!-i' the middle o' onything, ye cudna tell whan or whaur,-'A hun'er poun'!' says he;'Ay, a hun'er poun'!' Fowk leuch at the first, but sune gat used til't, an' cam hardly to ken 'at he said it, for what has nae sense has little hearin'. An' I doobtna thae rimes wasna even

sfied with the explanation, b

d the man himsel', sae 'at ye canna yet rid o' them. It comes only at noos an' thans, but whan the fit's upo' me, I canna get them oot o' my heid. The verse

ut in Cosmo's head like a mouse, and he fell

h was in the broad dayligh

ll what-to stop at the door of the drawing-room, and go in. It was flooded with moonlight, but he did not mind that, so long as he could keep out of her sight. Still it had a strange, eerie look, with its various pieces of furniture casting different shadows from those that by rights belonged to them. He gazed at this thing and that, as if he had never seen it before. The place seemed to cast a spell over him, so that he could not leave it. H

t have been in the room-for his protection. The face that stared at him was a brown and red and weather-beaten face, cut across with a great scar, and wearing an expression of horror trying not to look horrible. His fear threatened to turn him into clay, but he met it with scorn, strove against it, would not and did not yield. Still the figure stared, as if it would fascinate him into limpest submission. Slowly at length it rose, and with a look that seemed meant to rivet the foregone stare-a look of mingled pain and fierceness, turned, and led the way from the room, whereupon the spell was so far broken or changed, that he was able to rise and

ing fire, and the streak from the setting moon, that stole in at the window, and lay weary at the foot of the wall. Slowly he fell fast asleep, and slept far into the morning: lo

to his gentle yet eager inquiry;-"perfect

o again, Cosmo," repli

sant either for yours

tion between yo

ion: COSMO

wrong, papa, I wil

ould unhesitatingly say you must. But

en? How am I to get

swer. Alas! there were more difficult

got up and dressed: except a little singing in his head when h

and Cosmo sat down in her chai

hum of the wheel. Through the low window, betwixt the leaves of the many plants that shaded it, he cou

cudna win awa'. Thereupon yer father, that is, yer gran'father,-or it wad be yer grit-gran'father-I'm turnin' some confused amo' ye: ye aye keep comin'!-onyhoo, he gae the captain a kent like,'at he wad du weel to offer his room til's lordship. But wad he, think ye? Na, no him! He grew reid, an' syne as white's the aisse, an' luikit to be i' the awfu'est inside ra

l the time Grannie had been speaking, it was to the accompaniment of her wheel, but Cosmo had not got far with his narrative

leaving Cosmo in doubt whether it was that she would take no interest in such a foolish thing, or found in it something to set her thi