Scotland/Scots > Wilson's tales of the Borders and of Scotland > Volume 3

otuL STANLEY; OK, A SAILOK’s STOKY. 17
side. Alack! I never thought to be made a widow in this
sort.’
“ ‘Wife!—wife!’ cried he impatiently; ‘be it my blame,
or whose blame it may, we can’t make a better of it now;
but it is very hard to have lost the earnings of twenty
years, and to be parted from wife and child. Don’t be
angry with me, daughter. Your father meant all he has
said or done for your good. Come, give your old fiithe
a kiss and forgive him. It may be the last he will ever
receive from you in his own house.’
“ She threw her arms around his neck and wept; and
while the father and daughter embraced each other, a
sheriff’s officer entered the house.
“ ‘Well-a-day!—well-a-day!’ cried Mrs. Danvers, as
she perceived him; ‘ thy errand, and the disgrace of it,
will break my heart.’
“ ‘ Don’t be distressed, good woman,’ said the officer, ‘ it
is no such disgrace but that many of the best in the coun¬
try must submit to it every day. Mr. Danvers,’ added he,
‘ I am sorry to inform you, you must walk with me. This
paper will inform you, you are my prisoner.’
“ ‘It is very hard,’ said the old man; ‘ I say, sir, it is
very hard to be called a prisoner in a free country, for
doing nothing at all. Heaven knows about this here debt
that is brought against me, for I don’t. But I know that
locking me up in a jail won’t pay it.’
“ ‘Oh, cruel law!’ exclaimed Mary; ‘framed by fools,
and put in force by usurers. Let justice laugh at the wise
law makers, who shut up the springs, and expect the reser¬
voirs to be filled.’
“ ‘Why, miss,’ said the official, ‘I didn’t make the law;
I be only the officer of the law. So come along, Mr. Dan-
vers, my good man, for I can’t stop all day to hear your
daughter’s speeches. I have other jobs of the same sort in
hand, and business must be attended to.’