"I does nae see the sense o' that, Master Gorb," said John, with a countenance right sorely altered: "that a man maunna say his awn's his awn, or what's his father's is his father's, but that he maun tak up sword and swordsman. I does nae fear thee. It's no to say that I fears thee; but I winna be bullied intil aught; and I just tells thee, that I'll neither fight thee nor suffer thee to get a scrap o' aught better than is set afore thee; and gang and seek thy mends. Now I says that." "Thou art a craven and a nincompoop," said my master, with the highest indignation; "and I lift my pledge, and will report thee to thy betters." "Do if thou mayest," cried old Latchie, running to an armour chest, and taking from thence a sword and buckler. "Disgrace of my house! To give the challenge, and then to flinch. Have with thee, Bellwether! I will give you to know, that old masons are the best barrowmen." "I ground my pledge again, and I take thee," said my master. But now the old woman came running between them, crying out, "Deil be i' your teeth! deil be i' your teeth! Tak a' that's i' the house an' haud you wi't: there are the keys; there are the keys! deil be i' your teeth, take a'--and let us alane o' your din." The Gorb waved the keys aside with his arm in high indignation; but the wife clung to her point. "I take you a' witnesses," cried she, "I take you a' witnesses, I have offered him the keys, and he has refused them. Here, young Gorb; young hing-by-the-gut, take ye them, take ye them. Deil be i' your teeth, take a' that's i' the house." I took the keys lest they should be forgot in the hurry; the two old fellows took to the field with sword and buckler, while both the old dame and her son John strove to interfere; but the old yeoman silenced them both with a word, and I thought he would have struck his son down with the sword, so much was he enraged at his behaviour.