The Guards and Highlanders strove in friendly emulation who should be first in the Russian redoubt; but Sir Colin, well ahead of his own men was first in the battery shouting: "We'll hae nane but Highland bonnets here!" and his troops rushed in after him like lions.

To which she rejoined, "Ye may hae that profit, but honour ye hae nane;" and then to the point, she added, "But I've been tell't that ae day's wark o' twa or three men wad mount the cannon, and that it may be a' dune for twenty shillings; now there's twa punds to ye."

I ken nane I'd rather tak wi' me as a lone companion on the long traverse.

Now I have heard tales, and told them too, Hut this is beyond what I could do; And far hae I ridden, and far hae I gane, But burdies like these I never saw nane.

She felt herself saying over to herself the words of the old north-country dirge, which came to her recollection she knew not how If hosen and shoon thou gavest nane, The whins shall prick thee intil the bane.