"Sir William Ashton at Wolf's Crag!" ejaculated the astonished man of hoops and staves.
"And hand and glove wi' Lord Ravenswood," added Dame Lightbody.
"Doited idiot!—that auld clavering sneck-drawer wad gar ye trow the moon is made of green cheese.—The Lord Keeper and Ravenswood! they are cat and dog, hare and hound."
"I tell ye they are man and wife, and gree better than some others," retorted the mother-in-law; "forbye, Peter Puncheon, that's cooper to the Queen's stores, is dead, and the place is to fill, and"—
"Od guide us, wull ye haud your skirling tongues," said Girder—for we are to remark, that this explanation was given like a catch for two voices, the younger dame taking up, and repeating, in a higher tone, the words as fast as they were uttered by her mother.
"The gudewife says naething but what's true, maister," said Girder's foreman, who
