Pondering these thoughts, I slowly dressed and went downstairs to breakfast; but so wrapped up was I in reflection, and in legal procedure and probable eventualities, that when Betty appeared with my bacon and egg I could scarcely reconcile myself to my surroundings or at once realise my whereabouts. Fortunately she didn't notice my air, otherwise my firm's long, blue, tax-looking letter would again have been blamed and ; nor did she make any attempt to pick up the thread-ends of our conversation regarding the regilding of the old frames. I wondered at this, as the conditions were ; and Betty, as a rule, follows up the trail of a crack as surely and consistently as a weasel follows a hare.  
'Joe's in the back-kitchen brushin' your boots,' she said, as she handed me the morning papers; and I sighed with relief in the knowledge that Boyes's liquid was likely, for the time being at least, to remain on his shop shelf. 'Puir sowl, he's quite pleased when I ask him to do ocht for you,' she continued. 'Yesterday, withoot bein' bid, he got oot yin o' your suits o' claes an' pressed it wi' my big smoothin' ern on the kitchen table, an' he's made sic a job o't as wud be a credit to ony whip-the-cat. He has learned mair than drillin' in the airmy, I tell ye.'
 
'I believe that, Betty,' I said. 'The service is often a capital schoolmaster. But it was very good of him to look to my clothes. I'll not forget him for that.'
 
'Oh, mercy me, Maister Weelum, dinna you gi'e him ocht! He wad be black an' terribly if ye offered him money. No, no, it's neither wisdom nor charity to gi'e to Joe, for he's made mair siller lately than he hoo to tak' care o'. I can tell ye he cam' hame this time wi' a weel-filled , an' for the first week o' six workin' days he did mak' it spin!'
 
'Spin, Betty? How in the world did he to make money spin in Thornhill?' I asked.
 
'Haith, if ye had only seen him ye wadna need to ask. Ahem, spin! Ay, Joe can not only mak' the money spin, but he spins himsel', an' he mak's every yin spin that'll sit wi' him. But mebbe I'm gaun ower quick. Did ye no' that Joe tak's a dram?'
 
'No, Betty, I did not; and, as he's a brother of Nathan's, I'm surprised to know it.'
 
'Oh, weel, but it's juist possible that I'm wrangin' Joe noo. He's what I wad ca' a regular drammer—tak's his gless o' beer every day—ye ken; but aince a year, an' for a while efter he comes back, he gangs fairly ower the soore baith wi' drinkin' himsel' an' treatin' ithers. Ye ken he then has siller galore among his fingers, an' wi' Joe, as wi' the rest o' folk, "the fu' cup's no' easy carried." Last year he had a gey time o't; spent a lot, an' it terribly when it was a' gane. Nathan canna be bothered wi' 'im in his thochtlessness. A' he says is "Benjy's a fule." He ca's him Benjy because he's the youngest o' the family. Ay, that's a' he says. But somewey I'm sorry for Joe, an' I'm aye ceevil an' nice to him. An', what think ye, Maister Weelum? He has signed the pledge to please me, 'at has he, an' he hasna touched a drap for nearly three weeks. It's wonderfu' what a bit word will do, if it's spoken in season.'
 
'Yes, Betty, that is so,' I said ; 'that is so. It is very good of you to interest yourself in Joe. I'm sure he'll bless your name every day.'
 
'Imphm! I've nae doot he does; in fact, I'm sure he does;' and a queer smile broke over Betty's face. 'Ay, he blesses my name, sure enough; he's a Hebron, ye ken. The Hebrons never say much, but they look a tremendous lot, an' Joe's been lookin' at me lately as if he was blessin' me. The fact is, he's sairly off his usual. He has a queer cowed look I never saw before. Oh, the man's no' weel, an' I'm sure he blames me for it. This mornin', when he cam' doon, he was lookin' fair meeserable, an' I asked him, in a , sympathetic wey, how he was feelin', an' said he, "Middlin', Betty; very middlin'. It's a very stiff job this I've tackled. I've been teetotal for twenty days, an' I've saved as much as'll buy me an oak ; an', Betty, if I'm teetotal for other twenty days, by the Lord I'll need it!" An', d'ye ken, Maister Weelum, he was sae fa'en-away-lookin' that, though I it was plantin' wi' ae haun an' pu'in up wi' the ither, I gaed away an' poured him oot a wee drap, juist a jimp gless, an' then I gi'ed him your buits to brush, an' he started to whussle like a mavis.'
 
Betty's face was quite serious when she was telling me this, and when I looked into her kindly, concerned eyes, and thought of Joe's patient , I began to laugh, and I laughed till the breakfast crockery . She looked at me in wonderment, and, lifting the teapot, she made for the door.
 
'Excuse me, Betty, and pardon my levity,' I said; 'but just one moment'——
 
'Oh, I'll excuse ye,' she said, as she halted. 'There's nocht I like better mysel' than a guid laugh, but it maun be at something funny; an' if it's Joe you're laughin' at, he was far frae funny this mornin', I tell ye.'
 
'I can well understand that, Betty; but I was going to say'——
 
'Maister Weelum, excuse me interruptin' ye, but do ye believe in ghosts?'
 
'Do I believe in ghosts? Certainly not. Why do ye ask?'
 
'Weel, I'm gled to hear ye dinna believe in them. I say wi' you; but Joe's juist been tellin' me that he met a leddy this mornin' on the public street that he could sweer died twenty-fower years bygane. So what mak' ye o' that?'
 
'Oh Betty, Joe's most surely talking nonsense. Where did you say he met the lady?'
 
'Haith, Joe'll no' alloo it's nonsense. He's very positive aboot it. His story to me was that he cam' suddenly on her gaun roon Harper's corner, an' he was so frichtened an' surprised that a' left him, an' he couldna look efter her either to mak' sure o' her or to see where she was gaun. He was as white as a sheet when he cam' in to me, an' between the fricht an' the lang want o' his dram, he was in sic a state that I'm sure the Lord will coont me in gi'en him a mouthfu'. What I telt ye before was only half the truth, an' noo ye ken a'.'
 
I don't know Joe very well. Since he came home I have had few opportunities of meeting him and analysing him; but when Betty was talking he was very flung on the screen, so to speak, and a possible trait in his character occurred to me.
 
'Betty,' I said, 'don't you think that Joe has just worked up his ghost story and excitement and , knowing you had spirits in the house, and that in the circumstances you would produce the bottle?'
 
'No, no, I dinna think that. Joe's a Hebron, as I've said, an' the Hebrons ha'e neither the cleverness to think a thing like that oot nor the to carry it through. No, no, Maister Weelum;............