TALE I. THE BLACK DWARF. CHAPTER I. Preliminary. Hast any philosophy in thee, Shepherd ? As You Like it. Ir was a fine April morning (excepting that it had snowed hard the night be fore, and the ground remained covered with a dazzling mantle of six inches indepth) when two horsemen rode up to the Wallace Inn. The first was a strong, tall, powerful man, in a grey riding-coat, ha ving a hat covered with wax-cloth, a huge silver-mounted horsewhip, boots, and dreadnought overalls. He was mounted on a large strong brown mare, rough in coat, but well in condition, with a saddle of the yeomanry cut, and a double-bitted military bridle, somewhat rusted. The man who accompanied him was apparently his servant; he rode a shaggy little grey poney, had a blue bonnet on his head, and a large check napkin folded about his neck, wore a pair of long blue hose instead of boots, had his gloveless hands much stained with tar, and observed an air of deference and respect towards his companion, but without those indications of precedence and punctilio which are preserved between the gentry and their domestics. On the contrary, the two travellers entered the court-yard abreast, and the concluding sentence of the conversation which had been carrying on betwixt them was a joint ejaculation, "Lord guide us, an' this weather last, any of what will come o' the lambs!" The hint was sufficient to my Landlord, who, advancing to take the horse of the principal person, and holding him by the reins as he dismounted, while his ostler rendered the same service to the attendant, welcomed the stranger to Gandercleugh, and, in the same breath, enquired, what news from the south hie-lands?"News ?" said the farmer," bad eneugh news, I think;-an' we can carry through the ewes it will be a' we can do; we maun e'en leave the lambs to the Black Dwarf's care." Aye, aye," subjoined the old shepherd, (for such he was) shaking his head, "he'll be unco busy amang the morts this season." "The Black Dwarf?" said my learned friend and patron,* Mr Jedidiah Cleishbo * We have in this, and other instances, printed in italics some few words which the worthy editor, Mr Je |