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 na about the gear that I was consulting you,—it was a braw barn-yard, doubtless, and thirty head of finer cattle there were na on this side of the Cat-rail; but let the gear gang,—if ye could but gi'e me speerings o' puir Grace, I would be content to be your slave for life, in ony thing that didna touch my salvation. O Elshie, speak, man, speak!"

"Well, then," answered the Dwarf, as if worn out by his importunity, "since thou hast not enough of woes of thine own, but must needs seek to burden thyself with those of a partner, seek her whom thou hast lost in the West."

"In the West? That's a wide word."

"It is the last," said the Dwarf, "which I design to utter;" and he drew the shutters of his window, leaving Hobbie to make the most of the hint he had given.

The west! the west!—thought Elliot; the country is pretty quiet down that way, unless it were Jock o' the Todholes; and he's ower auld now for the like