It happened one day in the month of September that
James Anderson, his master's son, went with this young man to
the Hope to divert himself. The herd had his dinner along with
him, and about one o'clock, when the boy proposed going home,
the former pressed him very hard to stay and take share of his
dinner; but the boy refused for fear his parents might be alarmed
about him, and said he would go home: on which the herd said to
him, 'Then, if ye winna stay with me, James, ye may depend on't
I'll cut my throat afore ye come back again.'
"I have heard it likewise reported, but only by one person, that
there had been some things stolen out of his master's house a
good while before, and that the boy had discovered a silver knife
and fork that was a part of the stolen property, in the herd's
possession that day, and that it was this discovery that drove him
to despair.
"The boy did not return to the Hope that afternoon; and, before
evening, a man coming in at the pass called The Hart Loup, with
a drove of lambs, on the way for Edinburgh, perceived something
like a man standing in a strange frightful position at the side of
one of Eldinhope hay-ricks.
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