382 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



the murdered Laird is haunting his ruined home. 

 Even by day they shun the place. Ghostly lights, 

 indeed! That little candle o' mine has served a 

 double purpose many a time. It has scared the folk 

 from the neighbourhood, and it has lured many a ship 

 into missing her reckoning. My money bags have 

 been most enriched by what the sea brought them ; 

 aud now any idiot shopkeeper or half-drunk fisherman 

 to think that / would spend one coin o' such sweetly 

 coft money upon Yule pleasures ! Ha ! ha I But 

 didn't I contrive cleverly to get my twa or three 

 drams without paying for them ? The man ahint the 

 counter thought that / would open my purse strings 

 if I got the whisky, and sair disgusted they looked 

 when I gaed off without spending a brown copper. 

 Oh, ay, James Gertson knows how to circumvent 

 folks ! He knows how to keep the cash together, and 

 belike he'll teach his wife to do the same. She is 

 her faither's favourite bairn, so there will be a good 

 slice of his gear coming my way before long. It was 

 rare carrying off that young braggart's sweetheart after 

 alL The young fellows laugh at me and call me ' old 

 miser ' ; and Yaspard, boastful boy, vain of his pretty 

 face, and confident because of his youth, told me in 

 plain words what he thought of me. Yet / got the 

 lass, and he was jilted ! His handsome face weighed 

 light against my money ! — woman's ways all the world 

 over that! Much they care for love kisses if the 

 man that gives them cannot pour money into the 

 little hands at the same time ! Soft hands that know 



