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23 astonishment, he found that the demand was nothing less than the entire amount he had received for the taxes, together with a receipt or those of the following year, and a special engagement, that he would never again return to that island to demand taxes on excise. Hard as the terms were, he was at length compelled to accede to them, rather than take on a tide which, at the time, was running at the rate of nine miles an hour, the alternative of being left to drift out to sea in an open boat, with scarcely a hope of relief from any quarter. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that having paid back the money, and giving the required receipt, the crest-fallen taxman was put safely ashore, and never again visited the island, or trusted himself in company with so tricky a customer is the old dealer in rabbit skins.

SCARLET DISCOVERED.

A Highlander entered a haberdasher's shop in Perth, and asked for a piece of scarlet cloth to make him a waistcoat. The rustic manner of the Gael set some young women who were at the counter a-giggling; and the shopman, willing to afford them sport, began to play off his small wit upon the