THE

PIRAT E.

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CHAPTER XI.

All your ancient customs,

And long descended usages, I'll change.
Ye shall not eat nor drink, nor speak nor move,
Think, look, or walk, as ye were wont to do;
Even your marriage-beds shall know mutation;
The bride shall have the stock, the groom the

wall;

For all old practice will I turn and change, And call it reformation marry, will I!” 'Tis Even that we're at Odds.

THE festal day approached, and still no invitation arrived for that guest, without whom, but a little space since, no feast could have been held

in the island; while, on the other hand, such reports as reached them on every side spoke highly of the favour which Captain Cleveland enjoyed in the family of the old Udaller of Burgh Westra. Swertha and the old Ranzelar shook their heads at these mutations. and reminded Mordaunt, by. many a half hint and inuendo, that he had incurred this eclipse by being so imprudently active to secure the safety of the stranger when he lay at the mercy of the next wave beneath the cliffs of Sumburgh-head. «It is best to let saut water take its gait," said Swertha; « luck never came of crossing it."

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or a

In troth," said the Ranzelar, «they are wise folks that let wave and withy haud their ain luck never came of a half- drowned man, half-hanged ane either. Who was't shot Will Paterson off the Noss? the Dutchman that he saved from sinking, I trow. To fling a drowning man a plank or a tow, may be the part of a Christian; but I say keep hands aff him, if ye wad live and thrive free frae his danger."

„Ye are a wise man, Ranzelar, and a worthy," echoed Swertha, with a groan, «< and ken how and whan to help a neighbour, as weel as ony man that ever drew a net."

In troth, I have seen length of days," answered the Ranzelar, and I have heard what the auld folk said to each other anent sic mat

ters; and nae man in Zetland shall go farther than I will in any Christian service to a man on firm land; but if he cry help out of the saut waves, that's another story."

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And yet, to think of this lad Cleveland standing in our Master Mordaunt's light," said Swertha, «and with Magnus Troil, that thought him the flower of the island but on Whitsunday last, and Magnus, too, that's both held (when he's fresh, honest man) the wisest and wealthiest of Zetland.".

He canna win by it," said the Ranzelman, with a look of the deepest sagacity. There's whiles, Swertha, that the wisest of us (as I am sure I humbly confess mysel) may be little better than gulls, and can no more win by doing deeds of folly than I can step over Sumburgh-head. It has been my own case once or twice in my life. But we will see soon what ill is to come of all this, for good there cannot come."

And Swertha answered, with the same tone of prophetic wisdom, « Na, na, gude can never come on it, and that is ower truly said."

These doleful predictions, repeated from time to time, had some effect upon Mordaunt. He did not indeed suppose, that the charitable action of relieving a drowning man had subjected him, as a necessary and fatal consequence, to the unplea. sant circumstances in which he was placed; yet