THE LAST DAY AT CHEE-1IA. 233 



in pursuit of a deer, in an unfrequented part of 

 these woods, when, slap ! went my horse's legs into 

 a hole, in which he sunk to his shoulder ! while I 

 took measure of a good slip of land beyond. Hav- 

 ing shaken off the dust, I went to help the horse, 

 who kept floundering about in the hole ; and I then 

 perceived that he had fallen into a grave, which 

 had caved in under his weight. 



" ' A treasure or old May !' said I, and soon began 

 to dig; when I came to what do you think? At 

 the bottom of the grave, among fragments of a de- 

 cayed coffin, was stretched out a skeleton complete 

 and, at its head and feet, by way of head-stone 

 and foot-board, lay a bottle of Irandy, and another 

 of rum corked, sealed, and deposited for con- 

 venient use, in another world if, haply, in that 

 world, drinking were a permitted enjoyment ! And 

 here we have the solution of the incident so ingeni- 

 ously mystified. The heathenish old reprobate pre- 

 ferred his bottle to his salvation and looked more 

 to one than to the other, in his last moments !" 



" The spell is broken," cried I ; " you have disen- 

 chanted ' old May ' with a vengeance ! You have 

 a knack of your own, of getting at the marrow of a 

 thing, you know ?" 



" Confound your marrow P said the Laird ; and 

 bounding from the table, he retired to bed ; to 



