Weel then, since you
havena paid me ony wages, an' I can prove day and date when I
was hired, an' came hame to your service, will you be sae kind as
to pay me now? That's the best way o' curing a man o' the mortal
disease o' leasing-making that I ken o'."
"I should think that Penpunt and Cameronian principles would
not admit of a man taking twice payment for the same article."
"In sic a case as this, sir, it disna hinge upon principles, but a
piece o' good manners; an' I can tell you that, at sic a crisis, a
Cameronian is a gay-an weel-bred man. He's driven to this, and
he maun either make a breach in his friend's good name, or in his
purse; an' oh, sir, whilk o' thae, think you, is the most precious?
For instance, an a Galloway drover had comed to the town o'
Penpunt, an' said to a Cameronian (the folk's a' Cameronians
there), 'Sir, I want to buy your cow,' 'Vera weel,' says the
Cameronian, 'I just want to sell the cow, sae gie me twanty punds
Scots, an' take her w' ye.' It's a bargain. The drover takes away the
cow, an' gies the Cameronian his twanty pund Scots. But after
that, he meets him again on the white sands, amang a' the drovers
an' dealers o' the land, an' the Gallowayman, he says to the
Cameronian, afore a' thae witnesses, 'Come, Master Whiggam, I
hae never paid you for yon bit useless cow that I bought.
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