Page:Tales of my landlord (Volume 4).djvu/245

 a tear it's cost my auld e'en. His uncle, poor gentleman, just sough'd awa' wi' it in his mouth. He had been gi'eing me preceeze directions anent the bread and the wine, and the brandy, at his burial, and how often it was to be handed round the company, (for, dead or alive, he was a prudent, frugal, pains-taking man) and then he said, said he, 'Ailie,' (he aye ca'd me Ailie, we were auld acquaintance) 'Ailie, take ye care and haud the gear weel thegither; for the name of Morton of Milnwood's ga'en out like the last sough of an auld sang.' And sae he fell out o' ae dwam into another, and ne'er spake a word mair, unless it were something we cou'dna mak out, about a dipped candle being gude aneugh to see to die wi'.—He cou'd ne'er bide to see a moulded ane, and there was ane, by ill luck, on the table."

While Mrs Wilson was thus detailing the last moments of the old miser, Morton was pressingly engaged in diverting the assiduous curiosity of the dog, which, re-