"Now the deil's in your whiggery," said the old lady Glenprosing; "wad ye hae our cummer's bonnie lad-bairn wag the head aff his shouthers like your godly Mess James Guthrie, that ye hald such a clavering about? - Na, na, he sall walk a mair siccar path, and be a dainty curate and say he should live to be a bishop, what the waur wad he be?"

The gauntlet thus fairly flung down by one sybil, was caught up by another, and the controversy raged, roared, or rather screamed, a round of cinnamon-water serving only like oil to the flame, till Jasper entered with the ploughstaff; and by the awe of his presence, and the shame of misbehaving "before the stranger man," imposed some conditions of silence upon the disputants.

I do not know whether it was impatience to give to the light a being destined to such high and doubtful fates, or whether poor Dame Yellowley was rather frightened at the hurly-burly which had taken place in her presence, but she was taken suddenly ill; and, contrary to the formula in such cases used and provided, was soon reported to be "a good deal worse than

was to be expected." She took the opportunity (having still all her wits about her) to extract from her sympathetic husband two promises; first, that he would christen the child, whose birth was like to cost her so dear, by a name indicative of the vision with which she had been favoured; and next, that he would educate him for the ministry. The canny Yorkshireman, thinking she had a good title at present to dictate in such matters, subscribed to all she required. A man-child was accordingly born under these conditions, but the state of the mother did not permit her for many days to inquire how far they had been complied with. When she was in some degree convalescent, she was informed, that as it was thought fit the child should be immediately christened, it had received the name of Triptolemus; the Curate, who was a man of some classical skill, conceiving that this epithet contained a handsome and classical allusion to the visionary plough, with its triple yoke of oxen. Mrs Yellowley was not much delighted with the manner in which her request had been complied with; but grumbling being to as little purpose

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as in the celebrated case of Tristram Shandy; she e'en sat down contented with the heathenish name, and endeavoured to counteract the effects it might produce upon the taste and feelings of the nominee, by such an education as might put him above the slightest thought of sacks, coulters, stilts, mould-boards, or any thing connected with the servile drudgery of the plough.

Jasper, sage Yorkshireman, smiled slily in his sleeve, conceiving that young Trippie was likely to prove a chip of the old block, and would rather take after the jolly Yorkshire yeoman, than the gentle but somewhat aigre blood of the house of Clinkscale. He remarked, with suppressed glee, that the tune which best answered the purpose of a lullaby was the " lullaby was the "ploughman's whistle," and the first words the infant learned to stammer were the names of the oxen; moreover, that the "bern" preferred home-brewed ale to Scotch twopenny, and never quitted hold of the tankard with so much reluctance as when there had been, by some manœuvre of Jasper's own device, a double straik of malt allowed to the brewing, above that which was sanctioned by the most liberal recipe, of which his dame's

household thrift admitted. Besides this, when no other means could be fallen upon to divert an occasional fit of squalling, his father ob served that Trip could be always silenced by jingling a bridle at his ear. From all which symptoms, he used to swear in private, that the“ boy would prove true Yorkshire, and mother, and mother's kin, would have small share of him.

Meanwhile, and within a year after the birth of Triptolemus, Mrs Yellowley bore a daughter, named after herself Barbara, who, even in earliest infancy, exhibited the pinched nose and thin lips by which the Clinkscale family were distinguished amongst the inhabitants of the Mearns; and as her childhood advanced, the readiness with which she seized, and the tenacity wherewith she detained, the playthings of Triptolemus, besides a desire to bite, pinch, and scratch, on slight, or no provocation, were all considered by attentive observers as proofs that Miss Baby would prove "her mother over again." Malicious people did not stick to say, that the acrimony of the Clinkscale blood had not on this occasion been cooled and sweetened

by that of old England; that young Deilbe licket was much about the house, and they could not but think it odd that Mrs Yellowley, who, as the whole world knew, gave nothing for nothing, should be so uncommonly attentive to heap the trencher, and to fill the caup, of an idle blackguard ne'er-do-weel. But when folks had once looked upon the austere and awfully virtuous countenance of Mrs Yellowley, they did full justice to her propriety of conduct, and Deilbelicket's delicacy of taste.

Meantime young Triptolemus having received such instructions as the curate could give him, (for though Dame Yellowley adhered to the persecuted remnant, her jolly husband, edified by the black gown and prayer-book, still conformed to the church as by law established,) was, in due i process of time, sent to Saint Andrews to prosecute his studies. He went, it is true, but with an eye turned back with sad remembrances on his father's plough, his father's pancakes, and his father's ale, for which the small beer of the college, commonly there termed "through go nimble," furnished a poor substitute. Yet he advanced in his learning, being found, however,