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Craigielinn

[section]

The night o' the harvestin' I slippit out while the folk were a' blyth and busy, and met Colin at the Birkburn. I'll no sune pit past the remembrance o' that nicht. The bonnie moon at the vera tap o' her silver beauty, glinted through the birken-boughs, page 35 chequering the grass aneath wi' shifting patches o' licht an' shade, as the gentle breeze saftly swayed the tree tops to and fro; and whiles makin' the burn glimmer silver-bricht atween. Colin said he maun be awa next mornin', and as ye'll suppose, we were unco sad an' dreary at the thocht. I kent weel that my faither wouldna approve of a puir tenant farmer's son asking at him for his dochter; an' I e'en grat an' sobbed in my trouble. But Colin, did the best possible thing to comfort me; for he took me intil his honest faithfu' airms, an' vowed he would either find or make a road out o' the difficulty. Syne he tauld me he had considered o' a way in which it could be accomplished; and he speered wad I meet him at the byre next Monday in the gloamin', an' then he would make me acquent wi' his proposals. I gladly promised to keep tryst as he wished. Just then, while I was speakin', I thocht I heard a rustlin' sound as of some-body moving amang the birks, an' there was a sharp erack, as o' branches serunchin' under foot. There wasna onything to be seen however; an' Colin said I was just a wee seairt. “Dinna be feart, my pet lammie,” he whispered. “Aye be leal, an' I'll mak' a gude hame for ye yet.” An' wi’ a lang strang embrace we pairted—he awa to the bothie, an' I to the house.

An’ now I maun tell ye a bit ploy o' Colin's. I wanted him to set down what happened till him at the trysting for a story is aye best at first hand, afore it gets glaured wi' oure muckle handlin'. Colin had a way o' tellin’ o't that aye gart me laugh, though it was nae laughin' matter at the time. But he was awfu' fearsome o' venturin'. Sae I said, would he ca' page 36 in young Colin wha had aye had the best o' schulin’ and was considered a very promising laddie, aye at the tap o' his class an' haudin’ the highest o' characters frae his masters. Well, he ‘greed to this, an' a nicht was fixed when the important work should be done. Young Colin was very proud o' the compliment, I'se warrant ye, and he set himsel' doun till the performance o' the task wi' a wise-like air that sat weel on his young shouthers. “Noo,” quo auld Colin, “ye'll be sure to pit down what I say in the best o' gude English, for this is just ane o' yer mither's whigma-leeries, and I wadna care to spoil her bit buik.”

Sae auld Colin began to tell his story, and young Colin began to clerk it, an' this is what came o't:—