Sae I rase, afore my ordinar' time, and gaed back to my
wark. I had taen twa or three glasses o' a dooms fine tipple they ca'
Madeira, an' a moufu' o' cheese--that was a'. Weel, I sat doon to my
catalogue there, as it micht be here; but I hadna sat copyin' the
teetles o' the buiks laid out upo' the muckle table afore me, for mair
nor twa minutes, whan I heard a kin' o' a reestlin', an' I thocht it
was mice, to whilk I'm a deidly enemy ever sin they ate half o' a first
edition o' the _Fairy Queen_, conteenin' only the first three buiks, ye
ken, o' whilk they consumed an' nae doot assimilated ae haill buik and
full a half o' anither. But whan I luikit up, what sud I see but a wee
leddy, in a goon the colour o' a clood that's takin' nae pairt i' the
sunset, but jist lookin' on like, stan'in afore the buik-shelves i' the
further en' o' the room. Noo I'm terrible lang-sichtit, and I had
pitten the buiks i' that pairt a' richt already wi' my ain han'--and I
saw her put her han' upon a buik that was no fit for her. I winna say
what it was. Some hermaphrodeet cratur had written't that had no respec
for man or woman, an' whase neck sud hae been thrawn by the midwife,
for that buik cam o' sparin' o' 'm!
"'Dinna touch that buik, my bonny leddy,' I cried.
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