Richard's eye several times with the most mild and gentlemanly demeanour possible. The latter continued bis threatening attitude without moving, fixed in the position of a dog that has taken up a dead point. All the party sat in silent alarm; and even Joseph gave over laughing, for he perceived his savage attitude, which M'Ion did not, he being sitting close beside him, and engaged in helping some of the party with his good cheer. Dick at length, seeing nobody like to take any notice of him, or to appear the least frightened, broke silence, and in a stentorian voice, said "I'll tell thee what it is, honest man; bee the Lord, speer thou that question at me again, if thou dares, for the life o' thee!""

Dares, sir!" said M'Ion, without any anger in his voice" I hope you did not mean to apply that term to me by way of defiance? I made the request to you in good fellowship, and I shall certainly do it again, until you either comply, or refuse it.-Can you, I say, procure me from your country a breed of the little wolfdog ?"

"Ay, ay!-gayan bauld chap, too!" exclaimed Dick, and again fell to the viands before him; but at every bite and sup he took, he uttered some term of bitter threatening." Little wolf-dog, i'faith!-No very blate neither! Weel, weel, I'll mind it!??

"Thank you, sir," said M'Ion.

"Thank me, sir!" exclaimed Dick; "sutor me an I disna thank somebody though, or them and me part!" Callum, perceiving his savage humour, and likewise desirous of drawing his attention to something else, and knowing of nothing save that which he had been talking of before, it struck him that it would be better to lead his thoughts again to that, or any thing, rather than the little wolf-dog, so he interrupted his smothered declamations with a speech.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. M'Ion," said he, "but I think you interrupted this gentleman, Mr. Rickleton, as he was proceeding with some very interesting remarks about a gentleman that had abused the confiVOL. I.

dence of a fair inamorata; and as I am always interested in every thing that relates to the other sex, may I beg of him to let us hear that business thoroughly explained. Pray, sir, were you not hinting at some story about a fellow, that had whispered in a girl's ear, and who had fallen into a slough, or pond, just as the little wolf-dog popped in?"

"Little wolf-dog again!" exclaimed Dick; "whispering a girl! a slough and a pond! and all crammed together? Why, thou son of a gun, I suppose thou wants a neck-shakin, dis thou ?"

Nephew, I beg you will tak a wee thought where you are," said Daniel," and no speak to gentlemen as they were your toop herds. You hear the story of the little wolf-dog and the ostler's wife has been told a' the way to Edinburgh; and ye ken gentlemen maun be letting gang thae hits at ane anither. Let me hear anither ill word out o' your mouth, and I'll soon put thee down."

Richard wanted to show off before his uncle in courage and strength, and felt no disposition, at that present time, to go to loggerheads with him, so he judged it proper to succumb, and he again sunk into the sul lens, muttering occasionally to himself such words as these: "Dammit, but I'll wolf-dog them yet! them the heeland pipers!" In short, he continued so surly through a part of the afternoon, and contrived to render himself so disagreeable in spite of all that could be done to please him, that at length, when the wine began to operate a little, none of the three northcountry gentlemen cared any further how much they offended him, for they all felt offended with him already, but judged him below their notice, farther than to make game of.

Accordingly, at a convenient time, Milon thought he would make an experiment of the other hint given him by his young friend, Joseph, who, at his father's command, had by that time gone down stairs to the ladies. To be sure the last had succeeded remarkably ill, but it was likely this would succeed better, and

if not he did not care.

"Is there a creature on the

Border fells that they call a heather-blooter?" said Milon carelessly, looking Dick in the face.

"Wha the devil bade thee ax siccen a question as that, mun?" returned Dickie. "I tell thee what it

is, sur-Here I sit. My name is Richard Rickleton, Esquire. I am laird of Burlhope, a freehauder i' the coonty o' Northoomberland, a trustee on the turnpike roads, and farmer o' seventeen thousand acres o' land. I hae as muckle lying siller ower and aboon as wad hire ony three heylandmen to be flunkies to the deil, and I winna sit nae langer to be mockit. I scart your buttons, sir."

"Shentlemens! Shentlemens !" cried Peter M'Turk, "what for peing all this prhoud offence? There is such a fellow as the hadder-blooter. I have seen her myself, with her long nose; and she pe always calling out Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo."

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"I scart your buttons too, sir." said Dick, scratching the ensign's button with his nail. "I suppose thou understands that, dis thou?" "Nho-Tamn mé if I dhoo!" said Peter, with great emphasis.

"Then I suppose thou understands that, dis thou?" rejoined Dick; and at the same time he lent Ensign M Turk such a tremendous blow a little above the ear, that it knocked him fairly down, and he fell with a groan on the floor, like a bull from the stroke of a butcher's ax.

“Good God ! what does the brute mean?” cried Callum, in a key of boundless rage.

"Sir, this must be answered elsewhere, and in another manner," said M'Ion, opening the door; " you are not fit to sit in the company of civilized beings-l desire to walk out." you

"Sutor me if I stir from the house till I have satisfaction," roared Dick in his native bellow. "I am a gentleman. My name is Richard Rickleton, Esquire. I am laird of Burlhope, a freebauder, a trustee on the turnpike roads, and farmer of seventeen thousand acres

of land. I have been insulted here where I stand, and I'll have amends."

"This is my house for the present, sir. There shall be no brutal uproar here. I say walk out before matters get worse, and do not compel me to force you."

"Thou force me! Nay, coome; thou's joking, now. I should like to see ane double thy pith force me either out or in!"

The

M'Ion in one moment had him by the shoulder, and ere Dick had time to get his brawny legs set firm, or so much as look about him, he was at the door, and that bolted behind him. But then there arose such a bellow of threatening, swearing, and heavy blows on the door, and the other door on the landing place, that the people within were terribly alarmed, and were calling for the police out at three windows at the same time; among the rest, Joseph was calling as loud as any; such a fracas was marrow to his bones. The policemen soon arrived, but before that time Dick had by main force split one of the doors in pieces, though not the one that he was turned so quickly out of; but they were so close to one another that he knew not which was which, and broke up the wrong one. women of the house were crying out" murder" and "robbers;" for he was cursing and threatening death and vengeance on some one they knew not who, and running headlong into every room in search of the company he had left. The men instantly seized him, and desired him to come along; but such a compliance was the farthest of any thing from Dick's mind. He asked no questions, made no excuses, but commencing the attack, laid on the policemen with all his might and main, crying out at the same time, "a wheen mae heeland devils! I believe them thieves thinks to carry a' the hale warld afore them. Coome, coome, now, that's not fair; ane at a time, scoundrels, an it pleases thee; and I'll let thee see what men are made of."

Dick was however fast secured, hauled down stairs,

and away to the police-office, in the middle of an immense crowd of raggamuffins, among whom was his cousin, Joseph Bell, enjoying the whole scene in the most superb degree. Dick knew nothing about policemen, or a police-office, or what they were going to do with him, but still deemed that it behooved him to fight his way out of the scrape he had got into, otherwise it would fare the worse with him. He conceived himself to be in the same situation as he wont to be when engaged in a row at the Border fairs, and actually exerted himself in no ordinary way to overpower his adversaries the policemen, who again and again pronounced him to be possessed of the devil. Joseph had taken care by the way to spread the report among the mob that it was for housebreaking he was taken up, and this piece of information spread like fire, and was actually at the police-office before Dick. He was there thrust in among a few culprits as outrageous and unmanageable as himself, though not endowed with half the bodily strength; and there he first learned the extent of his crime, with the addition that it was thought he would strap for it. Dick at first denied, asserting that he had only broken a head, not a house; but by degrees the truth dawned on his mind, that he had broken open a door, and made a bit of a dust in a house; but he asserted, at the same time, that he had been most unwarrantably turned out of the house by the neck, a thing he would never submit to. Joseph turned home at the door of the policeoffice, quite overjoyed at the scene that had taken place; and so light and buoyant were his spirits, that he ran home as if treading the paths of the wind. He hasted up stairs with the news, but the party were otherwise engaged, and none of them thought proper to go and procure the enlargement of the outrageous Borderer, leaving him in the meantime to reap the fruits of his imprudence.

We should now return to the party whom we left so abruptly with the policemen; but as every one will wish to learn how Dick came on in his new birth, we