s', and in what
company thou wert."

"And I warrant thou told'st him thou met'st me with a glee woman in the
mirk loaning yonder?"

"Thou know'st, Henry, I have no gift at lying; but I made it all up with
him."

"As how, I pray you?" said the smith.

"Marry, thus: 'Father Simon,' said I, 'you are an old man, and know not
the quality of us, in whose veins youth is like quicksilver. You think,
now, he cares about this girl,' said I, 'and, perhaps, that he has her
somewhere here in Perth in a corner? No such matter; I know,' said I,
'and I will make oath to it, that she left his house early next morning
for Dundee.' Ha! have I helped thee at need?"

"Truly, I think thou hast, and if anything could add to my grief and
vexation at this moment, it is that, when I am so deep in the mire,
an ass like thee should place his clumsy hoof on my head, to sink me
entirely. Come, away with thee, and mayst thou have such luck as thy
meddling humour deserves; and then I think, thou wilt be found with a
broken neck in the next gutter. Come, get you out, or I will put you to
the door with head and shoulders forward."

"Ha--ha!" exclaimed Oliver, laughing with some constraint, "thou art
such a groom! But in sadness, gossip Henry, wilt thou not take a turn
with me to my own house, in the Meal Vennel?"

"Curse thee, no," answered the smith.

"I will bestow the wine on thee if thou wilt go," said Oliver.

"I will bestow the cudgel on thee if thou stay'st," said Henry.

"Nay, then, I will don thy buff coat and cap of steel, and walk with thy
swashing step, and whistling thy pibroch of 'Broken Bones at Loncarty';
and if they take me for thee, there dare not four of them come near me."

"Take all or anything thou wilt, in the fiend's name! only be gone."

"Well--well, Hal, we shall meet when thou art in better humour," said
Oliver, who had put on the dress.

"Go; and may I never see thy coxcombly face again."

Oliver at last relieved his host by swaggering off, imitating as well as
he could the sturdy step and outward gesture of his redoubted companion,
and whistling a pibroch composed on the rout of the Danes at Loncarty,
which he had picked up from its being a favourite of the smith's, whom
he made a point of imitating as far as he could. But as the innocent,
though conceited, fellow stepped out from the entrance of the wynd,
where it communicated with the High Street, he received a blow from
behind, against which his headpiece