'for he is every where, and every body's favorite!

I see we shall have no luck to-day; and we scarcely need go farther. This was literally the case; for, on going to the churchyard, everything lay warm under the snow, and not a creature seemed to have been buried for a considerable time: so we returned to the ice, to watch Watty and the curlers.

"That body is taking too much exercise; he'll overheat himself dangerously,' said I to Pattison, as we amused ourselves looking at Watty running in all directions and 'sooping it up!'

"It would take a devilish deal to kill Watty," was Pattison's answer: and so we returned to Glasgow in the evening, no better than we had left it.

"Well, it came a thaw some time after this, and word was brought us, by some of our young friends, who had an eye on the churchyards, that there was a very tempting new-made grave, just

covered up in the Govan burying-ground; and, in order to retrieve our lost honours, we determined to make another attack upon it. There was no person except Pattison and myself that could go; so I kept our plan entirely to ourselves, for fear of another defeat, and took neither gig nor other conveyance, in order that we might avoid exposure, even before our friends. We also resolved, as the nights were long, to avoid the hazard of encountering Watty, by not setting off until three or four in the morning.

"On the appointed night, all things being ready, we rose at three; took our sack and implements, and our bottle of brandy, full to the cork, and off we set, on a cold sleety morning, feeling sure of success. There never was any thing more neatly and cleanly effected than the way in which we got to our ground. We walked in the churchyard as secure as if we had been in the cloisters of Glasgow College; and we found the

earth as soft as if we had been digging in a flowerpot. Then, Sir, we got the dead one up so pleasant and comfortable, that I was quite in love with him; and he went into the sack, I declare, just as if he had known his duty, and wished to make himself quite agreeable.

"Well, Sir,-when we had filled up the grave, and laid on the turf again, as smooth and beautiful as a swansdown tippet, we just placed our prize by the wall, and sat down on a stone, to make ourselves happy, with a considerable pull at the brandy bottle. Cheese and bread we had too, Sir; and there we were, in a delicious churchyard, with our valuable silent friend by our side, as happy as kings, and as merry as grigs, when-confound the thing!-a great ill looking blacksmith that lived opposite, quite disturbed and disconcerted our happiness.

"The coarse black rascal had, it appears, been at some wedding, or other spree, somewhere about

Mr. Oswald's, of Shieldhall, and was coming home with some of his drunken friends, when his eye caught a glimpse from our dark lantern, by the light of which we were incautiously enjoying our refreshment.

"I'll be hanged,' said the man, as he looked over the gate, 'if thae doctors are not a-foot! I saw a peep o' light just beyond Mrs. Mair's monument this very instant.'

"Hoot, man, ye're fou!' said his companion; 'ye see double; it's only spunkie.'

"Deevil a spunkie,' said the smith;

'I saw

it as clear as the smiddy fire. Never trust me, but I'll be at the bottom o't;' and he at once rushed into the churchyard.

"Here's another unlucky business,' said I, taking up the sack and its contents, and making off towards the other open stile of the churchyard. "But the smith was neither blind nor deaf, and both saw and heard us making our retreat in the

dark; and the fellow, seeming to have become more acute from the drink he had taken, at once made for the opposite passage out, to cut off our retreat; so we were obliged to betake ourselves, with our charge, to our old quarters, at the back of the church.

"Cheer up, old fellow!' said Pattison, clapping heartily the shoulder of our stiff friend in the sack; 'there's nothing to oppose us but a drunken blacksmith as yet; and if we can only keep out of the way of Wee Watty, we'll get up to Glasgow immediately, all three, like gentlemen.'

"I don't know whether it was the brandy, or whether it was that we had our subject so properly set beside us, that made us feel so happy; but, although we had to wait a good while under the church, we still expected to come off victorious. The morning, however, had now so far advanced, that we began to feel uneasy, as we continued to stand in the nook of a buttress of the old Govan