re you could get
ginger-beer of her own making at a penny a bottle, better than that
which they sold at the _Muirtown Arms_ at sixpence; and treacle-beer
also at a penny, but in this case the bottle was double the size and was
enough for two fellows; and halfpenny rolls, if you were fiercely hungry
and could not get home to dinner, so tough that only a boy's teeth could
tear them to pieces; and tarts, so full that it required long skill to
secure every drop of the jam, and your fingers were well worth licking
afterwards; and peppermint balls of black and white, one of which would
keep your mouth sweet for an hour of Latin--that is, if you only sucked
gently and didn't crunch. But the glory of the establishment was the
"gundy." There was a room behind the shop where Mrs. McWhae, who was a
widow, elderly and not prepossessing, lived and slept, and dressed
herself, and cooked her food, and, perhaps, on rare occasions, washed,
and there she prepared her tempting meats and drinks for the Seminary.
We lived in a pre-scientific age, and did not go curiously into the
origin of things, being content to take the Creation as it stood, and to
use the gifts of the gods in their finished form. But I believe that
"gundy" was made of the coarsest and cheapest sugar, which our hostess
boiled to a certain point, and then with her own fair hands, which it
was said she wetted with her lips, drew out and out, till at last, by
the constant drawing, it came to a light brown colour; after which she
cut the finished product into sticks of a foot long, and wrapped it up
in evil-looking brown paper, twisting the two ends. And, wonders of
wonders! all within that paper, and the paper itself, you could have for
one halfpenny! Good! There is no word for it, as the preachers say,
"humanly speaking." The flavour thereof so rich, so satisfying, so
stimulating, and the amount thereof so full and so tenacious. Why, that
"gundy" would so cling to your teeth and hide itself about your mouth,
and spread itself out, that he was a clever fellow who had drained its
last resources within an hour. Mrs. McWhae was a widow of a military
gentleman, who, it was understood, had performed prodigies of valour in
the Black Watch, and she was a woman of masculine vigour, who only dealt
upon a cash basis, and in any case of dispute was able to use her hands
effectively. Like most women she was open to blandishments, and Nestie
Molyneux, with his English tongue and pretty wa