Page:The Cottagers of Glenburnie - Hamilton (1808).djvu/233

 anxiety; for the first thing they heard was, that a man had passed through Glenburnie, who had seen Sandie at with the recruiting party the night before, and that the farmer had not been there. Jamie Bruce, who had brought the first account of Sandie from the fair, now offered to go in search of the old man, for whose fate all had, from this intelligence, become anxious. He had scarcely been gone an hour, when Meg came running in from the door, where she had been idling all the morning, and exclaimed, that her father was coming down the loan in a cart!

Mrs MacClarty, starting up at the news, flew out to meet her husband: her cousin followed in great agitation, and soon perceived, that the poor man was too ill to reach the house without assistance. Friendly assistance was at hand, for the cart was already surrounded by the neighbours; but all were so anxious to have their curiosity gratified, relative to the cause, that