"Besides," he went on, "though we carry off each others' cattle, and
fetch them home again, we are not bad friends while the truces hold,
save in the case of those who have blood feuds. It was but last week
that Allan Armstrong and his two sisters were staying here with us; and
I promised that, ere long, I would ride across the border and spend a
week with them."
"Yes, but that makes it all the worse. Adam Armstrong married my sister
Elizabeth, whom he first met at Goddington fair; and, indeed, there are
few families, on either side of the border, who have not both English
and Scotch blood in their veins. It is natural we should be friends,
seeing how often we have held Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries; and how
often, in times of peace, Scotchmen come across the border to trade at
the fairs. Why should it not be so, when we speak the same tongue and,
save for the border line, are one people? Though, indeed, it is
different in Kirkcudbright and Wigtown, where they are Galwegians, and
their tongue is scarce understood by the border Scots. 'Tis strange
that those on one side of the border, and those on the other, cannot
keep the peace towards each other."
"But save when the kingdoms are at war, Mother, we do keep the peace,
except in the matter of cattle lifting; and bear no enmity towards each
other, save when blood is shed.
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