Page:Scott - Tales of my Landlord - 3rd series, vol. 2 - 1819.djvu/258

248 a quarters length of my lug!—by the grace of Mercy, the horse swarved round, and I fell aff at the tae side as the ball whistled bye at the tither, and the fell auld lord took the whig such a swauk wi' his broadsword that he made twa pieces o' his head, and down fell the lurdane wi' a' his bowk abune me."

"You were rather obliged ta the old lord, I think," said Ravenswood.

"Was I? my sartie! first for bringing me into jeopardy, would I nould I—and then for whomling a chield on the tap of me, that dang the very wind out of my body—I hae been short-breathed ever since, and canna gang twenty yards without peghing like a miller's aiver."

"You lost then your place as trumpeter," said Ravenswood."

"Lost it—to be sure I lost it," replied the sexton, "for I couldna have plaid pew upon a dry humlock;—but I might hae dune weel eneugh, for I keepit the wage and the free house, and little to do but