Page:Memoirs of the late John Kippen, cooper, in Methven, near Perth.pdf/15

 that travel on the Lord's day, carrying bundles: Good woman, said John, if you knew what my bundle contains, you would not refuse me a bottle of ale. Ah! dear me, said the lad, what is't that's in your bundle? Indeed mistress I live in Stirling, and I had a brother, a wright lad in Glasgow, who died suddenly yesterday, and this is his winding sheet at the same time fitting down on a chair, & heaving a heavy sigh. The landlady's humanity was by this time roused, she ran to the bar for a bottle of brandy & gave John a hearty glass to keep him from fainting, & afterwards she treated him with bread and cheese, and would not take any thing from him but payment for the ale, Some readers may be inclined to censure poor John for this piece of duplicity, but it ought to be considered that it was only a little art which was applied on purpose to gain him necessary refreshment for his money. He had no intention to deceive, only to procure him this, and to take in the landlad was far from being his intention.

Another time coming down through England, on the west road, a gentleman asked him to carry a letter to a of his, (an aged lady) in Dumfries-shire, near Ecclechan, and at same time told him that the