`` Hoot-toot ! '' said Uncle Ebenezer , `` there 's a fine moon . '' `` Neither moon nor star , sir , and pit-mirk , '' * said I. `` I cannae see the bed . '' * Dark as the pit . `` Hoot-toot , hoot-toot ! '' said he . `` Lights in a house is a thing I dinnae agree with . I 'm unco feared of fires . Good-night to ye , Davie , my man . '' And before I had time to add a further protest , he pulled the door to , and I heard him lock me in from the outside . I did not know whether to laugh or cry . The room was as cold as a well , and the bed , when I had found my way to it , as damp as a peat-hag ; but by good fortune I had caught up my bundle and my plaid , and rolling myself in the latter , I lay down upon the floor under lee of the big bedstead , and fell speedily asleep . With the first peep of day I opened my eyes , to find myself in a great chamber , hung with stamped leather , furnished with fine embroidered furniture , and lit by three fair windows . Ten years ago , or perhaps twenty , it must have been as pleasant a room to lie down or to awake in as a man could wish ; but damp , dirt , disuse , and the mice and spiders had done their worst since then . Many of the window-panes , besides , were broken ; and indeed this was so common a feature in that house , that I believe my uncle must at some time have stood a siege from his indignant neighbours -- perhaps with Jennet Clouston at their head . Meanwhile the sun was shining outside ; and being very cold in that miserable room , I knocked and shouted till my gaoler came and let me out . He carried me to the back of the house , where was a draw-well , and told me to `` wash my face there , if I wanted ; '' and when that was done , I made the best of my own way back to the kitchen , where he had lit the fire and was making the porridge . The table was laid with two bowls and two horn spoons , but the same single measure of small beer . Perhaps my eye rested on this particular with some surprise , and perhaps my uncle observed it ; for he spoke up as if in answer to my thought , asking me if I would like to drink ale -- for so he called it . I told him such was my habit , but not to put himself about .
`` Na , na , '' XXXXX he ; `` I 'll deny you nothing in reason . ''
carried feared fell hung know lock observed said spoke wash