The Scotch people--even the females--are great smokers, and female
tobacco-users are not considered the embodiment of neatness.
[Illustration: "WILL YE TAK' A BLAST NOO?"]
The Countess of A., with a laudable desire to promote tidiness in the
various cottages on her estate, used to visit them periodically, and
exhort the inmates to cleanliness. One cottage was always found especially
untidy; and getting, perhaps, the least out of patience, the countess took
up a brush-broom, and having by its dexterous use made the room much
improved, she turned to the housewife, who, with pipe between her lips,
had been sitting on a stool, with body bent forward, her elbows on her
knees, and her chin resting in the palms of her hands, watching the
proceeding. The Countess said,--
"There, my good woman, is it not much better?"
"Ay, my leddy," said the woman, nodding her head, and rising, she stepped
towards the countess, drew the pipe from her mouth, and wiping it with her
brawny palm, presented it, saying,--
"An' will ye tak' a blast noo, my leddy?"