My gudesire was, by this time,
far beyond the bounds of patience, and, while he and Laurie were at deil
speed the liars, he was wanchancie aneugh to abuse Lapraik's doctrine
as weel as the man, and said things that garr'd folks' flesh grue that
heard them--he wasna just himsell, and he had lived wi' a wild set in
his day.
At last they parted, and my gudesire was to ride hame through the wood
of Pitmurkie, that is a' fou of black firs, as they say. I ken the wood,
but the firs may be black or white for what I can tell. At the entry of
the wood there is a wild common, and on the edge of the common a little
lonely change-house, that was keepit then by an hostler wife,--they suld
hae caa'd her Tibbie Faw,--and there puir Steenie cried for a mutchkin
of brandy, for he had had no refreshment the haill day. Tibbie was
earnest wi' him to take a bite of meat, but he couldna think o' 't,
nor would he take his foot out of the stirrup, and took off the brandy,
wholely at twa draughts, and named a toast at each. The first was, the
memory of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, and may he never lie quiet in his
grave till he had righted his poor bond-tenant; and the second was, a
health to Man's Enemy, if he would but get him back the pock of siller,
or tell him what came o' 't, for he saw the haill world was like to
regard him as a thief and a cheat, and he took that waur than even the
ruin of his house and hauld.
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