queer that wey; they get
a'thing preserved in tins, frae aboot London they tell me."

Mester Blair didna appear to understand Sandy, an' he speered, "Do you
get cash again' Billy Lowden; or hoo d'ye get peyment?"

"If the bawbees is no' at the back o' the cairt, up goes the bawk, an'
Donal' ca's awa," says Sandy. "Na, na, neen o' your Billy Lowden tick
for me. I believe in the ready clink."

"Oh, I see," said Mester Blair. "You get cash at the ship's side.
That is the safe plan."

"As you say," said Sandy, "that's exakly Bandy Wobster's wey o'
pettin't. I believe in the bawbees afore the tatties leave the back
door o' the cairt. Short accounts mak' lang freends."

"Do you do onything wi' the Continent ava?" said Meg's man.

"I travel a' ower the toon," said Sandy, "frae Tootles Nook to
Culloden, an' frae the Skemels to Cairnie Toll. It disna maitter a
doakan to me wha I sell till. Seven pund to the half-steen, an' cash
doon--thae's my principles; the same price, and the game turn o' the
bawk, to gentle and simple. When the champions are gude I can manish
twa load i' the day fine, an' if the disease keeps oot amon' them, they
pey no that ill."

Meg's man gey a kind o' a whistle in laich, an' I saw fine syne whaur
he had tint himsel'. Meg had tell'd him Sandy was a tattie merchant,
an' he'd been thinkin' Sandy had a big wey o' doin', an' sell'd tatties
in shiploads an' so on. I saw the whole thing in a blink, but never
lut wink, an' Sandy was fient a hair the better or the waur o' Meg's
man's mistak'.

We got a grand denner--something specific. "This is a kind o' a haiver
o' buff, Mistress Blair," said Sandy, when we got set doon; but I gae
him a kick throo ablo the table that garred him tak' his tongue atween
his teeth.

I needna tell you aboot a' we got to eat; Sandy ate that hearty that he
gaed oot to the simmer-seat efter, an' cud hardly steer oot o' the bit
for half an 'oor. Really ilky thing was better than anither, an' we
feenished up wi' ice-cream. Sandy took a gullar o't afore he kent, an'
I think he thocht he was brunt, for he nippit up the water bottle, an'
took a sweech o' cauld watter, an' then gae a pech like's he'd come
ooten a fit. He was a' richt efter a whilie, but the cratur had
over-eaten himsel', an' he was gey uneasy a' efternune.

Efter we got oor tea, Meg got the bairns a' beddit, an' then her an'
her man, an' me an' Sandy set aff for the theater. It was a terriple
gran