One day MacDugh met MacDumm, and they were soon grumbling as usual, and all to the tune of "If only we could get that vagabond Alexander Stewart out of the country." "Let's kill Daisy," MacDugh said at last; "if that doesn't make him clear out, nothing will."

No sooner said than agreed, and it wasn't dark before MacDugh and MacDumm crept up to the little shed where lay poor Daisy trying her best to chew her cud, though she hadn't had as much grass in the day as would cover your hand. And when Alex came to see if Daisy was all snug for the night, the poor beast had only time to lick his hand once before she died.

Well, Alex was a shrewd fellow, and downhearted though he was, he began to think if he could get any good out of Daisy's death. He thought and he thought, and the next day you could have seen him trudging off early to the fair, Daisy's hide over his shoulder, evert penny he had jingling in his pockets. Just before he got to the fair, he made several slits in the hide, put a penny in each slit, walked into the best inn of the town as bold as if it belonged to him, and, hanging the hide up to a nail in the wall, sat down.

"Some of your best whisky," says he to the landlord. But the landlord didn't like his looks. "Is it fearing I won't pay you, you are?" says Alex; "Why, I have a hide here that gives me all the money I want." And with that he hit it a whack with his stick and out hopped a penny. The landlord opened his eyes wide, as you may fancy.

"What'll you take for that hide?"

"It's not for sale, my good man."

"Will you take a gold piece?"

"It's not for sale, I tell you. Hasn't it kept me and mine for years?" and with that Alex hit the hide another whack and out jumped another penny.

Well, the long and the short of it was that Alex let the hide go, and, that very evening, who but he should walk up to MacDugh's door?

"Good evening, MacDugh. Will you lend me your best pair of scales?"

MacDugh stared and MacDugh scratched his head, but he lent the scales.

When Alex was safe at home, he pulled out his pocketful of bright gold and began to weigh each piece in the scales. But MacDugh had put a lump of butter at the bottom, and so the last piece of gold stuck fast to the scales when he took them back to MacDugh.

If MacDugh had stared before, he stared ten times more now, and no sooner was Alex's back turned, then he was off as hard as he could pelt to MacDumm's.

"Good evening MacDumm. That vagabond, bad luck to him------"

"You mean Alexander Stewart?"

"And who else should I mean? He's back here weighing out sackfuls of gold."

"How do you know that?"

"Here are my scales that he borrowed, and here's a gold piece still sticking to them."

Off they went together, and they came to Alex's door. Alex had finished making the last pile of ten gold pieces. And he couldn't finish because a piece had stuck to the scales.

In they walked without an "If you please" or "Hello the House."

"Well I never!" that was all they could say.

"Good evening MacDugh; good evening MacDumm. Ah! you thought you had played me a fine trick, but you never did me a better turn in all your lives. When I found poor Daisy dead, I thought to myself, 'Well her hide may fetch something;' and it did. Hides are worth their weight in gold in the market just now."

MacDugh nudged MacDumm, and MacDumm winked at MacDugh.

"Good evening, Alexander Stewart."

"Good evening kind friends."

The next day there wasn't a cow or calf that belonged to MacDugh or MacDumm but her hide was going to the fair in MacDugh's biggest cart drawn by MacDumm's strongest pair of horses.

When they came to the fair, each one took a hide over his arm, and there they were walking through the fair, bawling out at the top of there voices : "Hides to sell! Hides to sell!"

Out came the tanner. "How much for your hides, my good men?"

"Their weight in gold."

"It's early in the day to come out of the tavern." That was all the tanner said, and back he went to his yard.

"Hides to sell! Fine fresh hides to sell!"

Out came the cobbler. "How much for your hides, my men?"

"Their weight in gold."

"Is it making a game of me you are! Take that for your pains," and the cobbler dealt MacDugh a blow that made him stagger.

Up the people came running from one end of fair to the other. "What's the matter? What's the matter?" they cried.

"Here are a couple of vagabonds selling hides at their weight in gold," said the cobbler.

"Hold 'em fast ; hold 'em fast!" bawled the innkeeper, who was the last to come up, he was so fat. "I'll wager it's one of the rogues who tricked me out of thirty gold pieces yesterday for a wretched hide."

It was more kicks than halfpence that MacDugh and MacDumm got before they were well on their way home again, and they didn't run the slower because all the dogs of the town were at their heels.

Well, as you may fancy, if they loved Alex little before, they loved him less now.

"What's the matter, friends?" said he, as he saw them tearing along, their hats knocked in, and their coats torn off, and their faces black and blue. "Is it fighting you've been? or mayhap you met the police, ill luck to them?"

"We'll police you, you vagabond! It's mighty smart you thought yourself, deluding us with your lying tales."

"Who deluded you? Didn't you see the gold with your own two eyes?"

But it was no use talking. Pay for it he must, and should. There was a meal-sack handy, and into it MacDugh and MacDumm popped Alexander Stewart, tied him up tight, ran a pole through the knot, and off they started for the Nor Loch, each with a pole-end on his shoulder, and Alexander Stewart between.

But the Nor Loch was far, the road was dusty, and MacDugh and MacDumm were sore and weary, and parched with thirst. There was an inn by the roadside.

"Let's go in," said MacDugh, "I'm dead beat. It's heavy he is for the little he had to eat."

If MacDugh was willing, so was MacDumm. As for Alex, you may be sure his leave wasn't asked, but he was lumped down at the inn door for all the world as if he had been a sack of potatoes.

"Sit still, you vagabond," said MacDumm ; "If we don't mind waiting, you needn't."

Alex held his peace, but after a while he heard the glasses clink, and MacDugh singing away at the top of his voice.

"I won't have her, I tell you; I won't have her!" said Alex. But nobody heeded what he said.

"I won't have her, I tell you; I won't have her!" said Alex; and this time he said it as loud as he could.

"And who won't you have, may I be so bold as to ask?" said a farmer, who had just come up with a drove of cattle, and was turning in for a glass.

"It's the king's daughter. They're bothering the life out of me to marry her."

"You're the lucky fellow. I'd give something to be in your shoes."

"Do you see that now! Wouldn't it be a fine thing for a farmer to be marrying a princess, all dressed in gold and jewels?"

"Jewels do you say? Ah, now, couldn't you take me with you?"

"Well, you're an honest fellow, and as I don't care for the king's daughter , though she's as beautiful as the day, and is covered with jewels from top to toe, you shall have her. Just undo the cord, and let me out; they tied me up tight, as they knew I'd run away from her."

Out crawled Alex; in crept the farmer.

"Now lie still, and don't mind the shaking; it's only rumbling over the palace steps you'll be. And maybe they'll abuse you for a vagabond, who won't have the king's daughter, but you needn't mind that. Ah! it's a deal I'm giving up for you, sure as it is that I don't care for the princess."

"Take my cattle in exchange," said the farmer; and you may guess it wasn't long before Alex was at their tails driving them homewards.

Out came MacDugh and MacDumm, and one took one end of the pole and the other the other.

"I'm thinking he's heavier," said MacDugh.

"Ah, never mind," said MacDumm; "it's only a step now to the Nor Loch."

"I'll have her now! I'll have her now!" bawled out the farmer, from inside the sack.

"By my faith, and you shall though," said MacDugh, and he laid his stick across the sack.

"I'll have her now! I'll have her now!" bawled the farmer, louder than ever.

"Well, here you are," said MacDumm, for they were now come to the Nor Loch, and, unslinging the sack, they pitched it into the lake.

"You'll not be playing your tricks on us any longer," said MacDugh.

"True for you," said MacDumm.

"Ah, Alex, my boy," said MacDugh, "It was an ill day when you borrowed my scales."

Off they went, with a light step and an easy heart, but when they were near home, who should they see but Alexander Stewart, and all around him the cows were grazing, and the calves were kicking up their heels and butting their heads together.

"Is it you, Alex?" said MacDumm. "Faith, you've been quicker than we have."

"True for you, MacDumm, and let me thank you kindly; the turn was good, if the will was ill. You'll have heard, like me, that the Nor Loch leads to the Land of Promise. I always put it down as lies, bu tit is just as true as my word. Look at the cattle."

MacDugh stared, and MacDumm gaped; but they couldn't get over the cattle; fine fat cattle they were too.

"It's only the worst I could bring up with me," said Alexander Stewart; "the others were so fat, there was no driving them. Faith, too, it's little wonder they didn't care to leave, with grass as far as you could see, and as sweet and juicy as fresh butter."

"Ah, now, Alex, we haven't always been friends," said MacDumm, "but, as I was just saying, you were ever a decent lad, and you'll show us the way, won't you?"

"I don't see that I'm called upon to do that; there is a power more cattle down there. Why shouldn't I have them all to myself?"

"Faith, they may well say, the richer you get, the harder the heart. You always were a neighborly lad, Alex. You wouldn't wish to keep the luck all to yourself?"

"True for you, MacDugh, though 'tis a bad example you set me. But I'll not be thinking of old times. There is plenty for all there, so come along with me."

Off they trudged, with a light heart and an eager step. When they came to the Nor Loch, the sky was full of little white clouds, and, if the sky was full, the loch was as full.

"Ah! now, look, there they are," cried Alex, as he pointed tp the clouds in the loch.

"Where? where?" cried MacDugh, and "Don't be greedy!" cried MacDumm, as he jumped his hardest to be up first with the fat cattle. But if he jumped first, MacDugh wasn't long behind.

They never came back. Maybe they got too fat, like the cattle. As for Alexander Stewart, he had cattle and sheep all his days to his heart's content.