Page:Fun upon fun, or, Leper the tailor (1).pdf/19

 afternoon, as he was cooking his pot, John Mucklecheek, and James Puff-and-blaw, two civileers, having more zeal than knowledge, came upon him, and said, 'What's the matter, sir, you go not to the kirk?' Leper replied, 'I'm reading my book and cooking my pot, which I think is a work of necessity.' Then says the one to the other, 'Don't answer that graceless fellow; we'll make him appear before his betters.' So they took the kail pot, and puts a staff through the bools, and bears it to the clerk's chamber. Leper, who was never at a loss for invention, goes to the Principal of the College's house, no body being at home but a lass roasting a leg of Leper says, 'My dear, will you go and bring me a drink of ale, and I'll turn the spit till you come back.' The lass was no sooner gone than he runs away with the leg of mutton, which served his lads and him for supper. When the principal came home, he was neither to haud nor to bind, he was so angry; so on Monday he goes makes a complaint to the Lord Provost, who sends two officers for Leper who came immediately. My Lord asked him how he dared to take away the Principal's mutton. Leper replied, 'How dared your civileers