Page:Watty and Meg, or, the wife reclaimed.pdf/21

 21 sooner out o' his month than up jumps Habbie, cry- ing—“It was me, laird; noo gie me the five shil- lings." It is needless to add that the laird gied Habbie the money, and mony a hearty laugh he had when he thought on the way Habbie and his wife had ta'en to Raise the Wind. -:0:- THE WEST KINTRA Weaver Turned Teetotaler.

[This celebrated Scottish story used to be told by the late John Drummond, with tremendous applause.]

It's as fack as death, I'm maist burning wi' shame to haud up my head before sic a respectable company, particularly as my character, drawn in gey black colours, has been here before me; but as ye hae heard the first o't, and I hope the warst o't, I trust that ye'll pay attention to what remains o' my his- tory, and ye'll be better able to judge o' the story through and through. Weel, fock, I'm the Kil- barchan weaver, Sawnie Perkar's uncle, that got himsel fou about a twalmonth syne, kickit up a rippet wi' the landlady, and twa or three mae that pretended to be my friends, but sat on my coat tail d' that day; but what I'm maist anxious to inform you is this-I learned a lesson that I'll no soon for- got, and the happy result has been, that frae that day to this, spirits o' ony kind hasna crossed my craig; and I'm proud to say't, that Janet Galbraith my lawfu' married wife, has a' the credit o' the happy change. I own that I was foolish, very fool-