Oliver went away laughing at Laidlaw, leaving him to manage his nursing concern as he could.
I had witnessed Will's undaunted bravery, and yet I canna say but I was as weel pleased wi' this bit kind turn as ought I had seen him do. I think I see him yet wi' the child in his arms foussomly rowed up in a blanket, like a web—the head o' the boy out, a great neuk o' the blanket hinging down to the ground, and Will glowring back at Oliver's face: "Eh? What are ye about, min? A bonnie story, to come and meddle wi' me and my bit bairn!" Ha! ha! ha! Honest Laidlaw! I can never forget him and his bairn. "Cut the neck o't," says the other. "Will I, min? I'll see you d—d first," says Will. Ha! ha! ha! ha!—But then his look! that was the best sport ava; wi' his bendit face and muckle great wulcat een turned o'er his shoulder. "Cut the neck o't," says Oliver. They that had seen Laidlaw then! ha! ha! ha! "Will I, min?" Ha! ha! ha!
"My son, is there not a time for every thing?" said the friar. "If thou thinkest at all on our condition and thine own, surely thou wilt refrain from such a torrent of vain jesting. Remember that the words of thy mouth are for death or life; for the possession of maiden beauty, and love, and pleasure; or for the most dismal, and miserable, and wretched of all fates—to be killed and eaten up of thy brethren, the companions of thy journey."
"Gude faith, the thing's hardly to be thought of, let be spoken about," said Charlie. "But I beg your pardon, callants, I maun get on wi' my tale; for if I stick it in the middle, ye ken it is a' ower wi' me."
"I wish you would get on with it then," said Tam; "for if ye maun aye stop to laugh at your ain jests, we'll be a' dead o' hunger or ever the votes be ta'en. Nane but fools laugh at their ain sports."
"Whisht, whisht, Tam," returned Charlie,—"I hae a gay wide wizen when I am amang friends, but there are some things that I canna swallow for a' that—Where was I at? Aye at the sacking o' Ravensworth."
We drave the richest prey that morning that I ever yet saw liftit, if we had gotten it a' hame. We had thirty horses laden wi' stuff, and other thirty led anes, besides thirteen score o' good cattle; and we gae the banks o' the Teme and the Blackburn an unco singe afore we left them. I was rather against the burning, but Habby wadna be stayed; "Na, na; tit for tat, Charlie. That will stand for Hawick and Abbotrule."
We drave on, and drave on, as fast as the cattle could gang, and some o' the heavy soft anes we were obliged to leave behind sair against our wills. We were terrified for raising the country, for we had sic a far drive: but luckily the Nevilles had ta'en amaist every man with them in their expedition into Scotland; and the first time that we hovered was on Tersit-moor in Northumberland, a little before the break o' day. At that place there was the strangest thing happened to us that ever happened to men,—and it was for that that I began my tale.
My heart had been unco sair a' the night wi' thinking about the bonnie Lady Neville o' Ravensworth; and I had often been sae grieved about her death, and her bairn's death, that I hardly kend what I was doing. I thought I saw her kneeling on her knee, and begging of me to spare her life, and the life o' her child; and then how cruel it was in me to rin away rummaging up the stair, and lose the opportunity of preserving her. These thoughts had made my heart wholly inclined to pity, and, as soon as we lighted, I sought out Will Laidlaw o' Craik, to see if he had still been able, amang a' the confusion, to preserve the life of the child. Will had had a great deal o' trouble wi' him, chiefly from his associates, but he had him still safe an' sound. He had stuffed him in a horse's pack o' blankets and sheets, wi' his head out, and had kept beside him a' the gate; and now when I found him he had laid the boy down on the heather to sleep, and had him weel happit up, and Will himsel was lying streekit beside him. He thought that I wad gibe him about the business, and tried to waive the subject; but when I told him how much I was pleased wi' what he had done, he grew rather crouser, and could speak about naething else but the boy and his little sayings to him by the way. "Poor little dear soul!" said Will; "I think some body had flung him o'er the castle wa' in an armfu' claes, and never kend; and wha kens but he may be the heir o' Ravensworth himsel. He has been sae miraculously saved that he will surely come to something. But do ye ken, Charlie, my heart is already sae closely knitted to that bit helpless bairn, that I wadna see ony ill come ower him for a' the kye on the Crib-Law."
"Laidlaw, you shall never rue your kindness o' heart and attentions to that puir misfortunate bairn," quo' I: "The moment that I saw you take him up, and row him in a blanket, wi' his head out, as ye had been rowing up a wab, I resolved to reward you wi' my hale share o' the spulzie."