"Haud your tongue, ye b----!" said Caleb, in the impetuous and
overbearing triumph of successful invention, "a's provided now--dinner
and a'thing; the thunner's done a' in a clap of a hand!"

"Puir man, he's muckle astray," said Mysie, looking at him with a
mixture of pity and alarm; "I wish he may ever come come hame to himsell
again."

"Here, ye auld doited deevil," said Caleb, still exulting
in his extrication from a dilemma which had seemed insurmountable;
"keep the strange man out of the kitchen; swear the thunner
came down the chimney and spoiled the best dinner ye ever
dressed--beef--bacon--kid--lark--leveret--wild-fowl--venison, and what
not. Lay it on thick, and never mind expenses. I'll awa' up to the
la'. Make a' the confusion ye can; but be sure ye keep out the strange
servant."

With these charges to his ally, Caleb posted up to the hall, but
stopping to reconnoitre through an aperture, which time, for the
convenience of many a domestic in succession, had made in the door, and
perceiving the situation of Miss Ashton, he had prudence enough to
make a pause, both to avoid adding to her alarm and in order to secure
attention to his account of the disastrous effects of the thunder.

But when he perceived that the lady was recovered, and heard the
conversation turn upon the accommodation and refreshment which the
castle afforded, he thought it time to burst into the room in the manner
announced in the last chapter.