chamber, hung with stamped leather, furnished with fine embroidered

furniture, and lit by three fair windows. Ten years ago, or perhaps

twenty, it must have been as pleasant a room to lie down or to awake in

as a man could wish; but damp, dirt, disuse, and the mice and spiders

had done their worst since then. Many of the window-panes, besides, were

broken; and indeed this was so common a feature in that house, that I

believe my uncle must at some time have stood a siege from his indignant

neighbours--perhaps with Jennet Clouston at their head.

Meanwhile the sun was shining outside; and being very cold in that

miserable room, I knocked and shouted till my gaoler came and let me

out. He carried me to the back of the house, where was a draw-well, and

told me to "wash my face there, if I wanted;" and when that was done,

I made the best of my own way back to the kitchen, where he had lit the

fire and was making the porridge. The table was laid with two bowls and

two horn spoons, but the same single measure of small beer. Perhaps my

eye rested on this particular with some surprise, and perhaps my uncle

observed it; for he spoke up as if in answer to my thought, asking me if

I would like to drink ale--for so he called it.

I told him such was my habit, but not to put himself about.

"Na, na," said he; "I'll deny you nothing in reason."

He fetched another cup from the shelf; and then, to my great surprise,

instead of drawing more beer, he poured an accurate half from one cup

to the other. There was a kind of nobleness in this that took my breath

away; if my uncle was certainly a miser, he was one of that thorough

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