Mr Peevie was not a little proud of the part he had played in the storm
of the council, and his words grew, if possible, longer-nebbit and more
kittle than before, in so much that the same evening, when I called on
him after dusk, by way of a device to get him to help the implementing of
my intents with regard to the choice of two gentlemen to succeed those
whom he called "the expurgated dislocators," it was with a great
difficulty that I could expiscate his meaning. "Mr Peevie," said I, when
we were cozily seated by ourselves in his little back parlour--the
mistress having set out the gardevin and tumblers, and the lass brought
in the hot water--"I do not think, Mr Peevie, that in all my experience,
and I am now both an old man and an old magistrate, that I ever saw any
thing better managed than the manner in which ye quelled the hobleshow
this morning, and therefore we maun hae a little more of your balsamic
advice, to make a' heal among us again; and now that I think o't, how has
it happent that ye hae never been a bailie? I'm sure it's due both to
your character and circumstance that ye should take upon you a portion of
the burden of the town honours. Therefore, Mr Peevie, would it no be a
very proper thing, in the choice of the new councillors, to take men of a
friendly mind towards you, and of an easy and manageable habit of will."
The old man was mightily taken with this insinuation, and acknowledged
that it would give him pleasure to be a bailie next year. We then
cannily proceeded, just as if one thing begat another, to discourse anent
the different men that were likely to do as councillors, and fixed at
last on Alexander Hodden the blanket merchant, and Patrick Fegs the
grocer, both excellent characters of their kind. There was not, indeed,
in the whole burgh at the time, a person of such a flexible easy nature
as Mr Hodden; and his neighbour, Mr Fegs, was even better, for he was so
good-tempered, and kindly, and complying, that the very callants at the
grammar school had nicknamed him Barley-sugar Pate.
"No better than them can be," said I to Mr Peevie; "they are likewise
both well to do in the world, and should be brought into consequence; and
the way o't canna be in better hands than your own. I would, therefore,
recommend it to you to see them on the subject, and, if ye find them
willing, lay your hairs in the water to bring the business to a bearing."
Accordingly, we settled to speak of it as a matter in part decided, that
Mr Hodden and Mr Fegs were to be the two new councillors; and to make the
thing sure, as soon as I went home I told it to Mrs Pawkie as a state
secret, and laid my injunctions on her not to say a word about it, either
to Mrs Hodden or to Mrs Fegs, the wives of our two elect; for I knew her
disposition, and that, although to a certainty not a word of the fact
would escape from her, yet she would be utterly unable to rest until she
had made the substance of it known in some way or another; and, as I
expected, so it came to pass. She went that very night to Mrs Rickerton,
the mother of Mr Feg's wife, and, as I afterwards picked out of her, told
the old lady that may be, ere long, she would hear of some great honour
that would come to her family, with other mystical intimations that
pointed plainly to the dignities of the magistracy; the which, when she
had returned home, so worked upon the imagination of Mrs Rickerton, that,
before going to bed, she felt herself obliged to send for her daughter,
to the end that she might be delivered and eased of what she had heard.
In this way Mr Fegs got a foretaste of what had been concerted for his
advantage; and Mr Peevie, in the mean time, through his helpmate, had, in
like manner, not been idle; the effect of all which was, that next day,
every where in the town, people spoke of Mr Hodden and Mr Fegs as being
ordained to be the new councillors, in the stead of the two who had, as
it was said, resigned in so unaccountable a manner, so that no candidates
offered, and the election was concluded in the most candid and agreeable
spirit possible; after which I had neither trouble nor adversary, but
went on, in my own prudent way, with the works in hand--the completion of
the new bridge, the reparation of the tolbooth steeple, and the bigging
of the new schools on the piece of ground adjoining to my own at the
Westergate; and in the doing of the latter job I had an opportunity of
manifesting my public spirit; for when the scheme, as I have related, was
some years before given up, on account of Mr Plan's castles in the air
for educating tawny children from the East and West Indies, I inclosed my
own ground, and built the house thereon now occupied by Collector
Gather's widow, and the town, per consequence, was not called on for one
penny of the cost, but saved so much of a wall as the length of mine
extended--a part not less than a full third part of the whole. No doubt,
all these great and useful public works were not done without money; but
the town was then in great credit, and many persons were willing and
ready to lend; for every thing was in a prosperous order, and we had a
prospect of a vast increase of income, not only from the toll on the new
bridge, but likewise from three very excellent shops which we repaired on
the ground floor of the tolbooth. We had likewise feued out to advantage
a considerable portion of the town moor; so that had things gone on in
the way they were in my time, there can be no doubt that the burgh would
have been in very flourishing circumstances, and instead of being
drowned, as it now is, in debt, it might have been in the most topping
way; and if the project that I had formed for bringing in a supply of
water by pipes, had been carried into effect, it would have been a most
advantageous undertaking for the community at large.
But my task is now drawing to an end; and I have only to relate what
happened at the conclusion of the last act of my very serviceable and
eventful life, the which I will proceed to do with as much brevity as is
consistent with the nature of that free and faithful spirit in which the
whole of these notandums have been indited.