A spacious travelling carriage stood at the toll-gate, with two crimson lamps glowing luridly through the dark, driving tempest.
Holding down his hat with one hand and carrying the lantern with the other, old Andy pushed on towards the carriage, and saw that its door stood open, and a young man in a heavy travelling cloak was leaning out.
“Be gude to us, sir! is it yoursel’, sure enough? Troth, I said ye would come,” said Andy, with a welcoming smile.
“Come! why, to be sure I would come. Did you think that any sort of weather would have stopped me on such an occasion as this? Why, Birney, I would have come if it had rained pitchforks, points downward, or wild cats and mad dogs,” laughed the young man.
“Sae I said, sir; sae I said!”
“But, Birney, my friend, I must get out and stretch my limbs a little. I want to be able to stand when I get to the Hall; but really, I have been cramped up in this close carriage so many hours, riding over this beast of a country so many miles, without seeing a single place where I could stop for refreshment, that—that—in short, Birney, you must let me out and let me in,” said the traveller.
“Surely, Mr. Alexander! surely, sir! and much honor to my humble home,” said the old toll-taker, smiling, and bowing respectfully.
The young man, notwithstanding his “cramped” condition, leaped lightly from his carriage, drew his travelling cloak closely around him, hoisted a large umbrella, and unceremoniously preceded his host to the house, where he burst suddenly in upon Jenny, who was in the act of taking a kettle of boiling water from the fire.
“Gude save us! Mr. Alick, is it yoursel’? I could hardly believe ony gentleman in his sober sinses would take the road on sic a night!”
“It is myself, Mistress Birney—that I know; but as to being in my sober senses, I am not quite so sure. I see you’ve got some hot water there. I hope you have also got a sample of that fine old Scotch whiskey your husband used to drink in remembrance of your old country. If so, Mistress Birney, I’ll thank you to make me a tumbler of hot toddy. It would be very acceptable in such weather as this,” said “Mr. Alick,” as he threw off his cloak and his cap, and dropped himself down into old Andy’s own arm-chair, in the warm chimney corner.