Page:Merry tricks of Leper the taylor.pdf/21

(21) befote that was gone for Glasgow with his meal.

Leper was in use to give his lads their Sunday's supper which obliged him to stay from the kirk in the afternoon, he having neither wife nor servant in aid; so one Sunday afternoon as he was cooking his pot, John Muckle Cheek 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 am 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 never was at a loss for invention, goes to the Principal of the college's house, no body being at home but the lass roasting a leg of mutton; Leper says, my dear will you go and bring me a pint 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 their supper. When the Principal