“My good friends—­my dear friends,” said Caleb, still doubting how the certainty of the matter might stand, “what needs a’ this ceremony?  Ane tries to serve their friends, and sometimes they may happen to prosper, and sometimes to misgie.  Naething I care to be fashed wi’ less than thanks; I never could bide them.”

“Faith, Mr. Balderstone, ye suld hae been fashed wi’ few o’ mine,” said the downright man of staves and hoops, “if I had only your gude-will to thank ye for:  I suld e’en hae set the guse, and the wild deukes, adn the runlet of sack to balance that account.  Gude-will, man, is a geizen’d tub, that hauds in nae liquor; but gude deed’s like the cask, tight, round, and sound, that will haud liquor for the king.”

“Have ye no heard of our letter,” said the mother-in-law, “making our John [Gibbie] the Queen’s cooper for certain? and scarce a chield that had ever hammered gird upon tub but was applying for it?”

“Have I heard!!!” said Caleb, who now found how the wind set, with an accent of exceeding contempt, at the doubt expressed—­“have I heard, quo’she!!!” and as he spoke he changed his shambling, skulking, dodging pace into a manly and authoritative step, readjusted his cocked hat, and suffered his brow to emerge from under it in all the pride of aristocracy, like the sun from behind a cloud.

“To be sure, he canna but hae heard,” said the good woman.

“Ay, to be sure it’s impossible but I should,” said Caleb; “and sae I’ll be the first to kiss ye, joe, and wish you, cooper, much joy of your preferment, naething doubting but ye ken wha are your friends, and have helped ye, and can help ye.  I thought it right to look a wee strange upon it at first,” added Caleb, “just to see if ye were made of the right mettle; but ye ring true, lad—­ye ring true!”

So saying, with a most lordly air he kissed the women, and abandoned his hand, with an air of serene patronage, to the hearty shake of Mr. Girder’s horn-hard palm.  Upon this complete, and to Caleb most satisfactory, information he did not, it may readily be believed, hesitate to accept an invitation to a solemn feast, to which were invited, not only all the notables of the village, but even his ancient antagonist, Mr. Dingwall, himself.  At this festivity he was, of course, the most welcome and most honoured guest; and so well did he ply the company with stories of what he could do with his master, his master with the Lord Keeper, the Lord Keeper with the council, and the council with the king [queen], that before the company dismissed (which was, indeed, rather at an early hour than a late one), every man of note in the village was ascending to the top-gallant of some ideal preferment by the ladder of ropes which Caleb had presented to their imagination.  Nay, the cunning butler regained in that moment not only all the influence he possessed formerly over the villagers, when the baronial family which he served were at the proudest, but acquired even an accession of importance.  The writer—­the very attorney himself, such is the thirst of preferment—­felt the force of the attraction, and taking an opportunity to draw Caleb into a corner, spoke, with affectionate regret, of the declining health of the sheriff-clerk of the county.