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48 roast a nit, and a supper too small to fatten him beforehand! But how the deuce should you know how to provender for gentlemen? You thought you were in Scotland, I'll be bound!"

"Perhaps he did, when he looked upon you, Ned!" said Tomlinson gravely; "'tis but rarely out of Scotland that a man can see so big a rogue in so little a compass!"

Mr. Mac Grawler, into whose eyes the palmistry of Long Ned had brought tears of sincere feeling, and who had hitherto been rubbing the afflicted part, now grumbled forth—

"You may say what you please, Mr. Pepper,—but it is not often in my country, that men of genius are seen performing the part of cooks to robbers!"

"No!" quoth Tomlinson, "they are performing the more profitable part, of robbers to cooks, eh!"

"Dammee, you're out," cried Long Ned, "for, in that country, there are either no robbers, because there is nothing to rob; or the inhabitants are all robbers, who have plundered one another, and made away with the booty!"