Page:Monthly scrap book, for March.pdf/22

 22           THE MONTHLY Fumigating ’Mixture.—-Two ounces of salt dried, two ditto of nitre. Mix and put to them in a stoneware basin or plate, a half-ounce of wa- ter, and the same quantity of good sulphuric acid. Remove all polished-metal articles from the room, as the vapour would rust them, and close all doors and windows. To procure more advantage, when the process appears to cease, place the basin on hot sand. Balancing Accounts.—-At a time not very distant, it was an established practice through- out most of the Highlands for the smith to get the mart’s head in return for keeping the axe in repair during the year. About half a century ago, the then minister of Blair-Athole, having killed his mart, sent the head according to custom to the smith, but being fond of a delicate bit himself, he      sent it without the tongue. The smith received his tribute without any remark, but in the course of a      few days the parson's axe having come to be re- paired, he trimmed the head of it, and sent it back without meddling with the cutting part. The minister on seeing this, waxed wroth, and set off for the smithy in a violent passion. “ What, in      the name of wonder,” said his reverence, “ is the reason that you only sorted the head of the axe; you must be very ungrateful for the present I sent you?” “ What, in the name of wonder,” said the smith, “is the reason that you took the tongue from the mart’s head?” “ O!” says the parson, turning as smooth as oil, “ you must know, smith, that it is by the tongue I earn my bread.” “ I did not know before,” says vulcan, drily, “ that it was by a nowt’s tongue ”