We'll hap and row, hap and row,
We'll hap and row the feetie o't.
It is a wee bit weary thing,
I dinnie bide the greetie o't.
PROVOST CREECH.
An honest man, close button'd to the chin,
Broad-cloth without, and a warm heart within.
COWPER.
This great globe and all that it inherits shall dissolve,
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a rack behind.
SHAKSPEARE.
At the christening of our only bairn, Benjie, two or three remarkable
circumstances occurred, which it behoves me to relate.
It was on a cold November afternoon; and really when the bit room was all
redd up, the fire bleezing away, and the candles lighted, every thing
looked full tosh and comfortable. It was a real pleasure, after looking
out into the drift that was fleeing like mad from the east, to turn one's
neb inwards, and think that we had a civilized home to comfort us in the
dreary season. So, one after another, the bit party we had invited to
the ceremony came papping in; and the crack began to get loud and hearty;
for, to speak the truth, we were blessed with canny friends, and a good
neighbourhood. Notwithstanding, it was very curious, that I had no mind
of asking down James Batter, the weaver, honest man, though he was one of
our own elders; and in papped James, just when the company had haffins
met, with his stocking-sleeves on his arms, his nightcap on his head, and
his blue-stained apron hanging down before him, to light his pipe at our
fire.
James, when he saw his mistake, was fain to make his retreat; but we
would not hear tell of it, till he came in, and took a dram out of the
bottle, as we told him the not doing so would spoil the wean's beauty,
which is an old freak, (the smallpox, however, afterwards did that;) so,
with much persuasion, he took a chair for a gliff, and began with some of
his drolls--for he is a clever, humoursome man, as ye ever met with. But
he had now got far on with his jests, when lo! a rap came to the door,
and Mysie whipped away the bottle under her apron, saying "Wheesht,
wheesht, for the sake of gudeness, there's the minister!"
The room had only one door, and James mistook it, running his head, for
lack of knowledge, into the open closet, just as the minister lifted the
outer-door sneck. We were all now sitting on nettles, for we were
frighted that James would be seized with a cough, for he was a wee
asthmatic; or that some, knowing there was a thief in the pantry, might
hurt good manners by breaking out into a giggle. However, all for a
considerable time was quiet, and the ceremony was performed; little
Nancy, our niece, handing the bairn upon my arm to receive its name. So,
we thought, as the minister seldom made a long stay on similar occasions,
that all would pass off well enough--But wait a wee.
There was but one of our company that had not cast up, to wit, Deacon
Paunch, the flesher, a most worthy man, but tremendously big, and grown
to the very heels; as was once seen on a wager, that his ankle was
greater than my brans. It was really a pain to all feeling Christians,
to see the worthy man waigling about, being, when weighed in his own
scales, two-and-twenty stone ten ounces, Dutch weight. Honest man, he
had had a sore fecht with the wind and the sleet, and he came in with a
shawl roppined round his neck, peching like a broken-winded horse; so
fain was he to find a rest for his weary carcass in our stuffed chintz
pattern elbow-chair by the fire cheek.
From the soughing of wind at the window, and the rattling in the lum, it
was clear to all manner of comprehension, that the night was a dismal
one; so the minister, seeing so many of his own douce folk about him,
thought he might do worse than volunteer to sit still, and try our toddy:
indeed, we would have pressed him before this to do so; but what was to
come of James Batter, who was shut up in the closet, like the spies in
the house of Rahab the harlot, in the city of Jericho?
James began to find it was a bad business; and having been driving the
shuttle about from before daylight, he was fain to cruik his hough, and
felt round about him quietly in the dark for a chair to sit down upon,
since better might not be. But, wae's me! the cat was soon out of the
pock.
Me and the minister were just argle-bargling some few words on the
doctrine of the camel and the eye of the needle, when, in the midst of
our discourse, as all was wheesht and attentive, an awful thud was heard
in the closet, which gave the minister, who thought the house had fallen
down, such a start, that his very wig louped for a full three-eighths off
his crown. I say we were needcessitated to let the cat out of the pock
for two reasons; firstly, because we did not know what had happened; and,
secondly, to quiet the minister's fears, decent man, for he was a wee
nervous. So we made a hearty laugh of it, as well as we could, and
opened the door to bid James Batter come out, as we confessed all. Easier
said than done, howsoever. When we pulled open the door, and took
forward one of the candles, there was James doubled up, sticking twofold
like a rotten in a sneak-trap, in an old chair, the bottom of which had
gone down before him, and which, for some craize about it, had been put
out of the way by Nanse, that no accident might happen. Save us! if the
deacon had sate down upon it, pity on our brick-floor.
Well, after some ado, we got James, who was more frighted than hurt,
hauled out of his hidy-hole; and after lifting off his cowl, and sleeking
down his front hair, he took a seat beside us, apologeezing for not being
in his Sunday's garb, the which the minister, who was a free and easy
man, declared there was no occasion for, and begged him to make himself
comfortable.
Well, passing over that business, Mr Wiggie and me entered into our
humours, for the drappikie was beginning to tell on my noddle, and made
me somewhat venturesome--not to say that I was not a little proud to have
the minister in my bit housie; so, says I to him in a cosh way, "Ye may
believe me or no, Mr Wiggie, but mair than me think ye out of sight the
best preacher in the parish--nane of them, Mr Wiggie, can hold the candle
to ye, man."
"Weesht, weesht," said the body, in rather a cold way that I did not
expect, knowing him to be as proud as a peacock--"I daresay I am just
like my neighbours."
This was not quite so kind--so says I to him, "Maybe sae, for many a one
thinks ye could not hold a candle to Mr Blowster the Cameronian, that
whiles preaches at Lugton."
This was a stramp on his corny toe. "Na, na," answered Mr Wiggie, rather
nettled; "let us drop that subject. I preach like my neighbours. Some
of them may be worse, and others better; just as some of your own trade
may make clothes worse, and some better, than yourself."
My corruption was raised. "I deny that," said I, in a brisk manner,
which I was sorry for after--"I deny that, Mr Wiggie," says I to him;
"I'll make a pair of breeches with the face of clay."
But this was only a passing breeze, during the which, howsoever, I
happened to swallow my thimble, which accidentally slipped off my middle
finger, causing both me and the company general alarm, as there were
great fears that it might mortify in the stomach; but it did not; and
neither word nor wittens of it have been seen or heard tell of from that
to this day. So, in two or three minutes, we had some few good songs,
and a round of Scotch proverbs, when the clock chapped eleven. We were
all getting, I must confess, a thought noisy; Johnny Soutter having
broken a dram-glass, and Willie Fegs couped a bottle on the bit table-
cloth; all noisy, I say, except Deacon Paunch, douce man, who had fallen
into a pleasant slumber; so, when the minister rose to take his hat, they
all rose except the Deacon, whom we shook by the arms for some time, but
in vain, to waken him. His round, oily face, good creature, was just as
if it had been cut out of a big turnip, it was so fat, fozy, and soft;
but at last, after some ado, we succeeded, and he looked about him with a
wild stare, opening his two red eyes, like Pandore oysters, asking what
had happened; and we got him hoized up on his legs, tying the blue shawl
round his bull-neck again.
Our company had not got well out of the door, and I was priding myself in
my heart, about being landlord to such a goodly turn out, when Nanse took
me by the arm, and said, "Come, and see such an unearthly sight." This
startled me, and I hesitated; but, at long and last, I went in with her,
a thought alarmed at what had happened, and--my gracious!! there, on the
easy-chair, was our bonny tortoise-shell cat, Tommy, with the red morocco
collar about its neck, bruised as flat as a flounder, and as dead as a
mawk!!!
The Deacon had sat down upon it without thinking; and the poor animal,
that our neighbours' bairns used to play with, and be so fond of, was
crushed out of life without a cheep. The thing, doubtless, was not
intended, but it gave Nanse and me a very sore heart.