You would think, James, that she would mind how she happit him from the cold of winter and sheltered him from the summer heats, and, when he began to find his footing, how she had an eye on a' the beasts of the field and on the water and the fire that were become her enemies--And to what purpose all this care?--tell me that, my man, to what good, if she is to leave him at the last to dangle from a tree at the end of a hempen rope--to see his flesh given to be meat for the fowls of the air--her son, her little son! MARY STEWAET. My son is guilty of no crime! CAMPBELL. Is he no'! Weel, mistress, as ye'll no' take my word for it, maybe ye'll list to Mr. Mackenzie here. What say ye, James? MACKENZIE. He is guilty of aiding and abetting in the concealment of proscribed persons; likewise with being found in the possession of arms, contrary to statute, both very heinous crimes. CAMPBELL. Very well said, James! Forby, between ourselves, Mrs. Stewart, the young man in my opeenion is guilty of another crime (_snuffs_)--he is guilty of the heinous crime of not knowing on which side his bread is buttered.--Come now-- MARY STEWART. Ye durst not lay a finger on the lad, ye durst not hang him. MACKENZIE. And why should the gentleman not hang him if it pleesure him? (CAMPBELL _taps snuff-box and takes pinch._) MARY STEWART (_with intensity_). Campbell of Kilmhor, lay but one finger on Dugald Stewart and the weight of Ben Cruachan will be light to the weight that will be laid on your soul. I will lay the curse of the seven rings upon your life: I will call up the fires of Ephron, the blue and the green and the gray fires, for the destruction of your soul: I will curse you in your homestead and in the wife it shelters and in the children that will never bear your name. Yea, and ye shall be cursed. CAMPBELL. (_Startled--betrays agitation--the snuff is spilled from his trembling hand._) Hoot toot, woman! ye're, ye're--(_Angrily_) Ye auld beldame, to say such things to me! I'll have ye first whippet and syne droont for a witch. Damn thae stubborn and supersteetious cattle! (_To_ SANDEMAN) We should have come in here before him and listened in the barn, Sandeman! SANDEMAN. Ah, listen behind the door you mean! Now I never thought of that! CAMPBELL. Did ye not! Humph! Well, no doubt there are a good many things in the universe that yet wait for your thought upon them. What would be your objections, now? SANDEMAN. There are two objections, Kilmhor, that you would understand. CAMPBELL. Name them. SANDEMAN. Well, in the first place, we have not wings like crows to fly--and the footsteps on the snow--Second point--the woman would have told him we were there. CAMPBELL. Not if I told her I had power to clap her in Inverness jail. MARY STEWART (_in contempt_). Yes, even if ye had told me ye had power to clap me in hell, Mr. Campbell.