Again we stood an' luikit at ane anither; an' my word! but the
maister's face was eneuch to fricht a body o' 'tsel', lat alane the
thing we h'ard an' saw naething til accoont for! 'Gang awa' back to
yer bed, Rose,' he said; 'this'll never do!' 'An' hoo are ye to help
it, sir?' said I. 'That I cannot tell,' answered he; but I wouldn't
for the world your mistress heard it! I left her fast asleep, and I
hope she'll sleep through it.--Did you ever hear anything strange
about the house before we came?' 'Never, sir,' said I, 'as sure as I
stan' here shiverin'!'--for the nicht was i' the simmer, an' warm to
that degree! an' yet I was shiverin' as i' the cauld fit o' a
fivver; an' my moo' wud hardly consent to mak the words I soucht to
frame!
"We stood like mice 'afore the cat for a minute or twa, but there
cam naething mair; an' by degrees we grew a kin' o' ashamet, like as
gien we had been doobtfu' as to whether we had h'ard onything; an'
whan again he said to me gang to my bed, I gaed to my bed, an' wasna
lang upo' the ro'd, for fear I wud hear onything mair--an' intil my
bed, an' my heid 'aneth the claes, an' lay trim'lin'. But there was
nane mair o' 't that nicht, an' I wasna ower sair owercome to fa'
asleep.
"I' the mornin' I tellt the hoosekeeper a' aboot it; but she held
her tongue in a mainner that was, to say the least o' 't, varra
strange.
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