"But these are fearfu' times, my lady, when the superior is beholden to the vassal for a roof to cover them, and a mouthfu' o' meat; but think o't, madam; the auld house is dark and empty, and the auld survitors are scattered owre the barony among the tenantry, and the keys o' the barbican gate are owre the muir wi' the ground baillie, auld Sym o' the Greenhill." "That loitering runnion should have been the first to present himself before us!" exclaimed Lady Grizel; "but I care not; let Hab and Meinie accompany us now, for our attire is too unseemly for appearance in daylight. I am impatient to return; for O, Elsie, thou knowest well this night is the old returning anniversary of my marriage and the laird's death, and dost think I will spend it under another roof than that of Bruntisfield, if I can avoid it?" "Of course not, my lady--but ewhow! I'll be alone in this auld cot, to be scared by spunkies or gyre earlins, for there is no' a place in a' the Lowdens for deid-lichts, bodochs, and unco' things, like the auld massemongers' kirk doun the loan there." "Peace, Elsie! and remember that there lie the bones of the Napiers for ten generations. Lay the bible on the table when we go," said Lady Grizel, with solemnity, "and place a four-leaved clover and rowan-tree sprig over the fireplace, and, dost hear me, Elshender, lay the poker and shovel crosswise above the gathering peat--" "Crosswise?" muttered Elsie; "doth not that pertain to the auld papistical leaven o' idolatry?" "It doth, I own, but the sign of the cross is a right good charm against the machinations of the evil one. You must have found that one made with red chalk on the bed-head, keepeth away both cramp and nightmare. My honoured mother used these marks, and by advice of Quentin, the abbot of Crossregal. O, Elshender, that is a long, long time ago, yet I mind it as yesterday." "Cocksnails!" muttered Hab; "a jovial stoup of Barbadoes kill-devil were a far better charm, and I douot not the abbot would have thought so too, eh, Master Fenton?" "Dear nurse," said Lilian, "surely one so harmless and so pious as thee need fear nothing." "Had ye heard the bummel o' the fairy boy's drum amang the lang grass in the loan and the stocks o' the hairst fields, brave though your bluid be, Lilian, it would turn, even as water. But if Lady Grizel requireth service of Hab and Meinie, it beseems no' the wife o' auld John Elshender to grudge it. Mony a year I have dwelt here, lang before the mirk Monanday, and ne'er saw aught that was unco, but I canna get owre my fears, though there is a horseshoe on the door where my puir gudeman nailed it forty years ago; there is a sprig o' rowan-tree owre the lintel, and the heart o' an elfshotten nowte, birselled wi' wax, and stuck fu' o' pins under the door step." "A grand charm, Elsie," said Lady Grizel gravely; "no evil thing can enter or prevail against it."