Page:Fun upon fun, or, The comical and merry tricks of Leper the tailor (1).pdf/21

21 take the devil with him. So home he went, but never was employed by that wife any more.

Leper had a deal of the best customers, both in town and country; so one time he had occasion to go to the parish of Inchinan to make a wedding- suit for a gentleman. After they were finished, he asked drink-money to his lads, which the gentleman refused. Leper resolved to be even with him; so he goes up to the hay-loft, where the groom slept, and takes his stockings, breeches, and jacket, sews them altogether, and stuffs them full of hay, makes a head, puts a rope about the neck, and hangs it on a tree opposite to the laird’s window; then goes to the laird, and tells him that his groom had hanged himself, and that if he would open his window, he would see him hanging; the laird, struck with astonishment, knew not what to do. Leper advised him to bury him privately. The laird said he had not a servant he could trust, so begged of Leper to do it. Leper refuses, till the laird promised him a load of meal; then Leper hauls the hay out of the groom’s clothes, goes and gets his load of meal, and sends it to Glasgow, then goes to the groom, and says hastily, ‘Lad, my master is wanting thee,’ so the lad runs in a haste to see what his master wanted; the laird no sooner saw him opening the door, than he cry’d out, ‘Avoid thee, Satan; avoid thee, Satan; the lad says, ‘ What’s the matter, sir? What’s the matter?’ ‘Did not you hang yourself this morning?’ ‘Lord forbid, said the lad. The laird