The Black Dwarf | Page 9

of
public opinion, I got off my subject by hastening the story to an end, as
fast as it was possible; and, by huddling into one volume, a tale which
was designed to occupy two, have perhaps produced a narrative as
much disproportioned and distorted, as the Black Dwarf who is its
subject.
*
III. THE BLACK DWARF.

CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY.
Hast any philosophy in thee, Shepherd? AS YOU LIKE IT.
It was a fine April morning (excepting that it had snowed hard the night
before, and the ground remained covered with a dazzling mantle of six
inches in depth) when two horsemen rode up to the Wallace Inn. The
first was a strong, tall, powerful man, in a grey riding-coat, having a hat
covered with waxcloth, a huge silver-mounted horsewhip, boots, and
dreadnought overalls. He was mounted on a large strong brown mare,
rough in coat, but well in condition, with a saddle of the yeomanry cut,
and a double- bitted military bridle. The man who accompanied him
was apparently his servant; he rode a shaggy little grey pony, had a
blue bonnet on his head, and a large check napkin folded about his neck,
wore a pair of long blue worsted hose instead of boots, had his
gloveless hands much stained with tar, and observed an air of deference
and respect towards his companion, but without any of those
indications of precedence and punctilio which are preserved between
the gentry and their domestics. On the contrary, the two travellers
entered the court-yard abreast, and the concluding sentence of the
conversation which had been carrying on betwixt them was a joint
ejaculation, "Lord guide us, an this weather last, what will come o' the
lambs!" The hint was sufficient for my Landlord, who, advancing to
take the horse of the principal person, and holding him by the reins as
he dismounted, while his ostler rendered the same service to the
attendant, welcomed the stranger to Gandercleugh, and, in the same
breath, enquired, "What news from the south hielands?"
"News?" said the farmer, "bad eneugh news, I think;--an we can carry
through the yowes, it will be a' we can do; we maun e'en leave the
lambs to the Black Dwarfs care."
"Ay, ay," subjoined the old shepherd (for such he was), shaking his
head, "he'll be unco busy amang the morts this season."
"The Black Dwarf!" said MY LEARNED FRIEND AND PATRON,

Mr. Jedediah Cleishbotham, "and what sort of a personage may he be?"
[We have, in this and other instances, printed in italics (CAPITALS in
this etext) some few words which the worthy editor, Mr. Jedediah
Cleishbotham, seems to have interpolated upon the text of his deceased
friend, Mr. Pattieson. We must observe, once for all, that such liberties
seem only to have been taken by the learned gentleman where his own
character and conduct are concerned; and surely he must be the best
judge of the style in which his own character and conduct should be
treated of.]
"Hout awa, man," answered the farmer, "ye'll hae heard o' Canny Elshie
the Black Dwarf, or I am muckle mistaen--A' the warld tells tales about
him, but it's but daft nonsense after a'--I dinna believe a word o't frae
beginning to end."
"Your father believed it unco stievely, though," said the old man, to
whom the scepticism of his master gave obvious displeasure.
"Ay, very true, Bauldie, but that was in the time o' the blackfaces--they
believed a hantle queer things in thae days, that naebody heeds since
the lang sheep cam in."
"The mair's the pity, the mair's the pity," said the old man. "Your father,
and sae I have aften tell'd ye, maister, wad hae been sair vexed to hae
seen the auld peel-house wa's pu'd down to make park dykes; and the
bonny broomy knowe, where he liked sae weel to sit at e'en, wi' his
plaid about him, and look at the kye as they cam down the loaning, ill
wad he hae liked to hae seen that braw sunny knowe a' riven out wi' the
pleugh in the fashion it is at this day."
"Hout, Bauldie," replied the principal, "tak ye that dram the landlord's
offering ye, and never fash your head about the changes o' the warld,
sae lang as ye're blithe and bien yoursell."
"Wussing your health, sirs," said the shepherd; and having taken off his
glass, and observed the whisky was the right thing, he continued, "It's
no for the like o' us to be judging, to be sure; but it was a bonny knowe

that broomy knowe, and an unco braw shelter for the lambs in a severe
morning like this."
"Ay," said his patron, "but ye ken we maun hae turnips for the lang
sheep, billie, and muckle hard wark to get