Page:Martha Spreull by Zachary Fleming.pdf/112

100 afflickshen and bereavement. Weel, the years following this ungodly event were, so to speak, marked by extraordinary material prosperity. Wellington boots were then a’ the rage, and my faither’s work having taken the fancy o’ ane Major Macready, he sent us sic routh o’ aristocratic customers we had to gie up oor hit hoose on the Bell-o’-the-Brae, and remove to lairger premises in George Street, that we micht the better accommodate the gentle folk that drove up to oor door in their carriages to leave their measure.

Sae great wis ocr run o’ fortune, that we had five journeymen and twa apprentices wi’ hound indentures workin’ at ae time frae six i’ the morning till six at nicht—no to speak o’ lang brashes o’ overtime at the end o’ the week. It wis a real heartsome time, wi’ the gran’ gentry callin’ every day, and the siller increasin’ in the bank till within twa or three hunner pounds, as my faither telt me, o’ reachin’ four figures. At that time my faither wis only a tenant in the George Street hoose, but I maun tell ye hoo he became the laird. The owner o’ the flett o’ rooms, the tae half o’ which wis occupied by us, and the tither by himsel’, wis ane Henry Hernbane, a tyler.

The property wis said to have come into his hands through an uncle on his mither’s side, but that mak’s nae odds, only I want ye to understan’ that it never wud have been his ava if he had had to work for’t himsel’, for he wis ane o’ the laziest beings I ever saw, and as inquisitive as lazy! Every carriage that cam’ to the closs found him either lookin’ owre the window, or stanin’ wi’ the door open to the length o’ its chain, that he might see wha the new comer happened to be.

Having tried every means, by speirin’ here, and speirin’ there, to ken what my faither wis worth, he at last cam’ straicht to the point and asked for a loan on the security o’ the