Page:Auld Robin Gray (2).pdf/14

 ears. Sooner wad he have expectit a shower of Gold frae the gloomy November clouds then help frae the hand of the laird of Stanedykes. But, tho’ blinded like many a man by a flash of lightning, even then, when he thoch o’ his daughter, the young, the bonny, the dutiful,—of sacrificing her in this gate,—it was enough to stagger him, and make his flesh creep. It was, however, the only star he saw in his night of black darkness; and the laird stuck to him. “Now ye’ve gien me your hand,” said Robin, rising to gang awa, “ye’ve gien me your hand, that ye’ll do your utmost wi’ my bonny Jeanie. I’ve mair, Walter, than either you or her ken aboot, but the day she takes me she’ll be mistress o’t a’. She’ll hae nathing to do ava, but sit, and sew, and churm like a lintie, and tak her pleasure wi’ a ponie to ride on when she likes the open air; and as mony maidens to wait on, her,—if she likes attendance,—as ony Lord's leddy frae Earlsferry Abbey to Culzean Castle.—When ye bring me oure word that she’s consentit (she’s yeur daughter, ye ken, Walter, my guide freen; and Scripture tells ye, ye can mak her do what ye like), bring oure a’ yere bills and bonds to me, and I’ll pit my name on the back o’them. Then ye ken,” he added, snapping his fingers “the’ll be worth twenty siller shillings to the pound; and as guide as the bank o’ Scotland. But mind ye, I canna wait; and, if I hear nae her consent the morn I maun een look anither way.”

It is hard to say, when he thocht of Jeanie in her teens, and the laird wi’ ae foot in the grave, whether pleasure or grief was uppermost in Walter’s heart; but at night; when they were sitting oure their cheerless ingle, he took an opportunity of breaking the subject to his daughter “It's true, Jeanie, my dear,” he said, giving her a kind clap on the shouther, “it's true we canna get every thing we like in this weary world. Ye’re mither and me there married