The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

THE ANTIQUARY. 14t7
silier without end, this grand pose o' silver and treasure (three times tried
in the fire, as the Scripture expresses it), that might hae made yoursell and
ony twa or three honest bodies beside, as happy and content as the day was
lang."
"Indeed, Edie, mine honest friends, dat is very true; only I did not
know, dat is, I was not sure, where to find de gelt myself."
" What! was it not by your honour's advice and counsel that Monkbarns
and the Knight of Knockwinnock carne here then?"
"Aha-yes; but it was by another circumstance. I did not know dat dey
would have found de treasure, mine friend; though I did guess, by such a
tintalmarre, and cough, and sneeze, and groan, among de spirit one other
night here, dat there might be treasure and bullion hereabout. Ach, mein
himmel! the spirit will hone and groan over his gelt, as if he were a Dutch
burgomaster counting his dollars after a great dinner at the Stadthaus."
"And do you really believe the like o' that, Mr. DIusterdeevil?-a skeelfu'
man like you-hout fie!"
"Mein friend," answered the adept, forced by circumstances to speak
something nearer the truth than he generally used to do, "I believed it no
more than you and no man at all, till I did hear them hone and moan and
groan m yself on de oder night, and till I did this day see de cause, which
was an great chest all full of de pure silver from Mexico-and what would
you ave me think den?"
" And what wad ye gie to.ony ane," said Edie, "that wad help ye to sic
another kistfu' o' silver?"
"Give!-mein himmel!-one great big quarter of it."
" Now, if the secret were mine," said the mendicant, "I wad stand out
for a half; for you see, though I am but a puir ragged body, and couldna
carry silver or gowd to sell for fear o' being taen up, yet I could find mony
folk would pass it awa for me at unco muckle easier profit than ye're
thinkinog one"
"Ach, himmel!-Mein goot friend, what was it I said?-I did mean to
say you should have de tree quarter for your half, and de one quarter to be
my f{iir half."
"No, no, lMr. Dusterdeevil, we will divide equally what we find, like
brother and brother. Now look at this board that I just flung into the dark
aisle out o' the way, while Monkbarns was glowering ower a' the silver
yonder. He's a sharp chiel Monkbarns-I was glad to keep the like o' this
out o' his sight. Ye'll maybe can read the character better than me-I am
nan that book-learned, at least I'm no that muckle in practice."
EWith this modest declaration of ignorance, Ochiltree brought forth from
behind a pillar the cover of the box or chest of treasure, which, when forced:
from its hinges, had been carelessly flung aside during the ardour of curiosity to ascertain the contents which it concealed, and had been afterwards,
as it seems, secreted by the mendicant. There was a word and a number
upon the plank, and the beggar made them more distinct by spitting upon
his ragged blue handkerchief, and rubbing off the clay by which the inscription was obscured. It was in the ordinary black letter.
"C' an ye mak ought o't? " said Edie to the adept.
"S,' said the philosopher, like a child getting his lesson in the primer-' S, T, A R, C, 1E,-Starch!-dat is what de women-washers put into de
neckerchers, and de shirt collar."
" Starch!" echoed Ochiltree; " na, na, Mr. Busterdeevil, ye are mair of a
conjuror than a clerk- -it's search, man, search- See, there's the Ye clear
and distinct."
"Aha! I see it now- it is search-number one. Mein himmel! then
there must be a number two, mein goot friend; for search is what you call
to seek and dig, and this is but number one!-Mine wort, there is one great
big prize in de wheel for us, goot Maister OchiltreeY"