holiday terms of hawk and hound as ready in his mouth as Tom with the tod's tail, that is the lord abbot's ranger.'
'Ranges he not homeward at dinner-time, dame,' demanded the miller; 'for we call noon the dinner-hour at Kennaquhair?'
The widow was forced to admit that, even at this important period of the day, Halbert was frequently absent; at which the miller shook his head, intimating, at the same time, some allusion to the proverb of MacFarlane's geese, which 'liked their play better than their meat '.[1]
That the delay of dinner might not increase the miller's disposition to prejudge Halbert, Dame Glendinning called hastily on Mary Avenel to take her task of entertaining Mysie Happer, while she herself rushed to the kitchen, and, entering at once into the province of Tibb Tacket, rummaged among trenchers and dishes, snatched pots from the fire, and placed pans and gridirons on it, accompanying her own feats of personal activity with such a continued list of injunctions to Tibb, that Tibb at length lost patience, and said, 'Here was as muckle wark about meating an auld miller, as if they had been to banquet the blood of Bruce.' But this, as it was supposed to be spoken aside, Dame Glendinning did not think it convenient to hear.
- ↑ A brood of wild geese, which long frequented one of the uppermost islands in Loch Lomond, called Inch-Tavoe, were supposed to have some mysterious connexion with the ancient family of MacFarlane of that ilk, and it is said were never seen after the ruin and extinction of that house. The MacFarlanes had a house and garden upon that same island of Inch-Tavoe. Here James VI was, on one occasion, regaled by the chieftain. His Majesty had been previously much amused by the geese pursuing each other on the loch. But, when one which was brought to table was found to be tough and ill-fed, James observed, 'that MacFarlane's geese liked their play better than their meat,' a proverb which has been current ever since.
