coat of
tartan, and, looking to the life the untamed, untaught, conceited little
Celt, he presented himself on Monday morning, armed with a letter of
introduction from a Glasgow builder, before the foreman of an Edinburgh
squad of masons engaged upon one of the finer buildings at that time in
the course of erection. The letter specified neither his qualifications
nor his name: it had been written merely to secure for him the necessary
employment, and the necessary employment it did secure. The better
workmen of the party were engaged, on his arrival, in hewing columns,
each of which was deemed sufficient work for a week; and David was
asked, somewhat incredulously, by the foreman, "if he could hew?" "O
yes, _he thought_ he could hew." "Could he hew columns such as these!"
"O yes, _he thought_ he could hew columns such as these." A mass of
stone in which a possible column lay hid, was accordingly placed before
David, not under cover of the shed, which was already occupied by
workmen, but, agreeably to David's own request, directly in front of it,
where he might be seen by all, and where he straightway commenced a most
extraordinary course of antics. Buttoning his long tartan coat fast
around him, he would first look along the stone from the one end, anon
from the other, and then examine it in front and rear; or, quitting it
altogether for the time, he would take up his stand beside the other
workmen, and, after looking at them with great attention, return and
give it a few taps with the mallet, in a style evidently imitative of
theirs, but monstrously a caricature. The shed all that day resounded
with roars of laughter; and the only thoroughly grave man on the ground
was he who occasioned the mirth of all the others. Next morning David
again buttoned his coat; but he got on much better this day than the
former: he was less awkward and less idle, though not less observant
than before: and he succeeded ere evening in tracing, in workman-like
fashion, a few draughts along the future column. He was evidently
greatly improving. On the morning of Wednesday he threw off his coat;
and it was seen that, though by no means in a hurry, he was seriously at
work. There were no more jokes or laughter; and it was whispered in the
evening that the strange Highlander had made astonishing progress
during the day. By the middle of Thursday he had made up for his two
days' trifling, and was abreast of the other workmen; before night he
was