They now again entered the gorge of the cavern, and stepping into the
boat, the Highlander pushed off, and, taking advantage of the morning
breeze, hoisted a clumsy sort of sail, while Evan assumed the helm,
directing their course, as it appeared to Waverley, rather higher up the
lake than towards the place of his embarkation on the preceding night. As
they glided along the silver mirror, Evan opened the conversation with a
panegyric upon Alice, who, he said, was both CANNY and FENDY; and was, to
the boot of all that, the best dancer of a strathspey in the whole
strath. Edward assented to her praises so far as he understood them, yet
could not help regretting that she was condemned to such a perilous and
dismal life.
'Oich! for that,' said Evan, 'there is nothing in Perthshire that she
need want, if she ask her father to fetch it, unless it be too hot or too
heavy.'
'But to be the daughter of a cattle-stealer--a common thief!' 'Common
thief!--no such thing: Donald Bean Lean never LIFTED less than a drove in
his life.'
'Do you call him an uncommon thief, then?'
'No; he that steals a cow from a poor widow, or a stirk from a cotter, is
a thief; he that lifts a drove from a Sassenach laird is a
gentleman-drover.
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