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156 they preferred and which every man round the table thought they were entitled to, he brushed their requests aside as if they were nobodies. As Raftra says, a Lord High Ranger couldn't have treated vagrom men with more contempt. This haughty demeanour enraged everyone; in fact, it was all Geordie and the wilder spirits could do to keep their clenched fists off the bailiff's person. As it was, angry words passed, but when a fight between the gipsy and the Scot seemed imminent, the old reeve rose, lifted his thin hands to command silence, and said:

'Don't quarrel, my friends—don't quarrel; better the otter never came anist us if it's to lead to blows. And yet, as an old tracker, it does my heart good to see how eager every man of 'ee is to get a good beat. For what else does it mean but this, that the love of sport among us is as strong as ever it was? It makes me long to be one of 'ee, it do; to be young again, abroad at peep o' day, when the sun is touchin' the cairns and the wakin' world is fresh and sweet, to feel once more the joy of comin' on the wild rover's prents. This minit in my mind's eye I can see the five round toe marks and the seal of the otter I spurred beside the Kieve. You've heard of the sport he gave. An old man's tongue will run